Microsoft announced yesterday the purchase of UK mapping company, Multimap. The US software giant intends to use the 11-year-old company’s location and mapping technology with its other services, such as Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services, MSN and its other new acquisition, aQuentive. This move is an attempt by Microsoft to compete more successfully with Google, whose Google maps and Earth services dominate the online mapping market. Data measurement firm, Nielson Online, has shown that Google Maps has 21.4 per cent of the market, whereas Multimap has just 1.4 per cent.
Commenting on the acquisition, Sharon Baylay, general manager of Microsoft’s online services group, said: "This acquisition will play a significant role in the future growth of our search business and presents a huge opportunity to expand our platform business beyond the UK and globally."
In further map-based news, the shareholders of digital map supplier Navteq have agreed the $8.1 billion takeover by Nokia, which was agreed last month.
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