German carmakers BMW, Audi and Mercedes have won US anti-trust approval to buy Nokia's maps business for around EUR2.5 billion ($2.8 billion), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said yesterday.
The deal, which was announced in early August, was on the FTC's list of uncontroversial transactions which won approval from the FTC or the Justice Department. The two agencies share the work of anti-trust enforcement.
Germany's three premium carmakers will hold equal stakes in the business, known as HERE, and may allow automakers to offer new premium features, such as autonomous driving, in luxury cars, shaking up the pecking order between carmakers, their parts suppliers and software rivals like Uber and Google.
HERE's primary competitor is Google Maps, and it also competes with smaller Dutch mapping firm TomTom. HERE was created by Nokia following the $8.1 billion acquisition of Navteq in 2008.
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