After months of negotiations, it appears that a deal between popular social networking site Facebook and crowd sourced navigation startup app Waze will not be made as discussions have apparently fallen through in the past few days resulting in the news that Facebook will not be acquiring the app.
AllThingsD reports the two companies had been in negotiations for a potential acquisition for a while with the price tag going as high as $1 billion. The talks seem to have dissolved over conflicts between where the Waze team would operate. Waze is currently predominantly based in Israel. The two could not decide if Waze would stay in Israel or move to Facebook's Menlo Park headquarters in California. AllThingsD also reported this is just one other reasons that discussions fell through.
The news is unfortunate for both parties as one would be a clear boon to the other. Facebook currently has no interactive map service unlike Google, so starting off with the already popular Waze would be a big get for them. O
n the other hand, Waze is a new startup that relies on crowdsourced information to update users about traffic jams, police traps and other things to make the daily commute that much easier. If it could integrate with Facebooks vast user base, it would profit greatly.
However, things aren't all bad for Waze as both Google and Microsoft have expressed interest in the application according to VentureBeat. Although Facebook has the vast amount of connected users, Google has years of experience with online mapping and GPS, making it a different but equally viable fit to acquire the application.
Previous rumors were circulating that Apple had also made a bid for Waze, likely in an attempt to make up for the ground that the company lost with its disastrous Apple Maps feature in iOS 6. However, in an interview with AllThingsD on May 28, Apple CEO Tim Cook denied the rumor.
