JERUSALEM, June 11
(Xinhua) -- Internet search giant Google
on Tuesday closed a deal to buy
Israeli navigation startup Waze for 1. 1
billion U.S. dollars.
Waze,
a navigating application for smartphones
and tablets, provides driving routes
based on real-time traffic updates
from users on the Waze social
network.
"I'm excited to
announce today that we have accepted
an offer to join Google," Waze
CEO Noam Bardin wrote on the
company's blog.
Waze's
product development team will stay in
Israel and operate separately for at
least three years, according to
Google.
"We're excited about
the prospect of enhancing Google Maps
with some of the traffic update
features provided by Waze and
enhancing Waze with Google's search
capabilities," said Google's Vice
President, Brian McClendon.
In
May, Waze was in advanced negotiation
with Facebook, but the deal was
not finalized reportedly because Facebook
insisted on moving the Waze management
and team to its headquarters in
Menlo Park, California of the United
States.
In addition, Facebook
reportedly agreed to pay only half
of the amount of the acquisition
in cash and the rest in
Facebook shares. However, Google set
out to pay the entire sum in
cash.
Google already has a
popular maps service, Google Maps.
However, it is not capable to
report on traffic congestion, police
presence, road accidents, speed cameras,
and road hazards.
Waze operates
a successful social network for
drivers with almost 50 million
users.
（Editor：HuangBeibei、Chen
Lidan）
