Waypoints – November 10, 2007

Waypoints is a collection of GPS news shorts from the past week…

Garmin / TomTom / Tele Atlas

• The Financial Times thinks Garmin has become a takeover target. They list Siemens, Qualcomm and Microsoft as potential buyers. Via APB.
• Why Microsoft should buy Garmin.
• TomTom ups the ante.
• And acquires a 28.3% stake in Tele Atlas. So, as GPS Business News reports, "…should Garmin win this bidding war, it may have to contend with a company in which TomTom has a significant shareholder stake and is a major customer."
• From Barron’s – "In the end, neither Garmin nor TomTom believes deep down that the other company, or Nokia for that matter, will play fair and keep prices reasonable…They also worry that as new mapping features
  become available, the other wouldn’t make these quickly available to a
  rival. The bottom line is that they don’t trust each other." Via BlinkGeo.
  
  
• Are there significant barriers to entry for a new map data company?