According to The New York Times, ridesharing company Uber has reportedly put in a bid to purchase Nokia's Here mapping division for the grand total of $3 billion. Nokia has been looking to offload Here for the past few months, and now Uber joins a long list of companies - including Facebook, Yahoo, Samsung, Apple, Amazon, and Audi - who want to seal the deal.
Mapping is an important part of Uber's business, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's used Uber's app with its integrated maps for tracking drivers. The company already acquired mapping company deCarta earlier this year, but they're looking to make the acquisition of Here their biggest yet.
Nokia, on the other hand, are moving away from mapping as a core business focus. While the company originally bought Navteq for $8.1 billion in 2007 and transformed it into Here, the sale of Nokia's phone division to Microsoft in 2013, and the acquisition of telecom equipment provider Alcatel-Lucent earlier this year, suggests Nokia wants to position themselves strongly in the telecom market going forward.
With so many companies eyeing off Here to compete with Google Maps, Nokia should be able to get a very good deal for their mapping division. The New York Times believes Nokia will choose a winning bid later this month, so we'll soon find out which company wants Here the most.