Facebook Likely In Talks To Buy Social Navigation App Waze

Will Facebook acquire social traffic and navigation app Waze? TechCrunch ran an article today claiming that three Israeli papers, Calcalist, Ynet and The Marker, have reported that Facebook is in talks to acquire the company in a billion-dollar deal that would help further grow Facebook’s mobile efforts.

According to the article, a private source confirmed the deal along with a price range of $800 million to $1 billion, although a spokesperson from Facebook and from Waze both said they will not comment on rumors or speculation about the business.

Waze uses crowdsourcing technology to let users share real-time traffic and road info. The company’s R&D is located in Isreal, but has an office in Palo Alto where their CEO Noam Bardin is based.

TechCrunch says the negotiations started six months ago and that the big issue right now is whether to move all of Waze to the U.S. Once rumored to be in talks with Apple, Waze reportedly has 47 million users with a third of those users in the U.S.

If this deal goes through at $1 billion, it will not be Facebook’s first billion dollar acquisition. The company also acquired Instagram for a $1 billion in April, 2012. Since the recent launch of Facebook Home earlier this year, Waze could prove valuable for Facebook’s mobile business. As the worldwide leader in social media, Facebook has 751 million active mobile users.

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