Geodata Poker | Christian Spanring

TomTom did the obvious step and raised their offer up to 30 EUR per TeleAtlas share, making TeleAtlas worth a decent 2.9 billion EUR.

Why do I get the feeling that, no matter who wins the poker game, the loser will run into big “devices without data” troubles?

The point I’m more concerned about is how will the outcome of this poker game affect other TeleAtlas clients. It’s quite obvious that the future TeleAtlas owner will try to get the investment back. And what would be easier than to have a look at existing costumers? Since TeleAtlas and NAVTEQ (now part of the Nokia empire) were in ~~monopoly~~ excellent data vendor positions, many clients depend on their services.

Just like a considerable part of public administration (transport planning, etc.) relies on TeleAtlas (or NAVTEQ) data. So I guess, thanks to privatization and outsourcing, the TeleAtlas bill is partially going to be paid with tax money too. [via heise]

http://blog.nona.net/ Alex

I would find it an refreshing move if governments too would finally come to the conclusion that openly available geodata is of great importance to society.

And if they started funding independent data providers (did i say “community mapping”) instead of “feeding the big two”, they’d see it very likely pay back in the near future..