TomTom ups the ante on Tele Atlas buy

Bidding war over digital map maker continues

TomTom, the world's second largest maker of personal navigation devices, has raised its acquisition offer for Tele Atlas to €30 per share, or €2.7bn.

Tele Atlas sells digital mapping information to companies including TomTom, Garmin, Google and Microsoft.

Garmin and TomTom are determined to take over Tele Atlas because they view ownership of digital maps as a crucial aspect of their business.

The new offer marks a 22 per cent premium over last week's €24.50 per share offer from Garmin valued at €2.3bn. Garmin is the world's largest personal navigation device maker.

TomTom first announced it intention to buy Tele Atlas in July with an offer of €1.8bn.

Tele Altas is the only independent digital map provider after Nokia's €5.4bn acquisition of Navteq in October.

In addition to raising its offer, TomTom also said that it would acquire 28.3 per cent of Tele Atlas stock at €30 per share. The transaction included a 17.4 per cent stake that has already been committed to a TomTom acquisition.

Garmin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.