SatNav's Fallen King Gets $1 Billion to Play With
It’s just possible that TomTom’s founders may be trying to find a way to buy the 53 percent of the company that they don’t own already.
TomTom may seem like yesterday's SatNav, but its owners haven't given up yet.
Any business being hounded by technological disruption usually finds itself at a crossroads where it must choose either to adapt and fight, or manage the decline. It increasingly looks like TomTom NV, once the king of satellite navigation devices, hasn’t decided on either route. Chief executive Harold Goddijn might be considering a third path.
The Dutch company said on Tuesday that it would sell its telematics business – the stuff that brings together wireless tech, cars and sensors – to Bridgestone Corp., the world’s biggest tire-maker, for 910 million euros ($1 billion). Of that, TomTom will return 750 million euros to shareholders.