Nokia Oyj, the Finnish company selling its money-losing maps business, is trying to drum up interest from some of the biggest names in technology, including Apple Inc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and Amazon.com Inc, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Nokia is seeking more than 3 billion euros (US$3.2 billion) from a sale of the unit HERE, said one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Baidu Inc (百度), Sirius XM Holdings Inc and Harman International Industries Inc were also approached about their interest, the people said.
First-round bids for the unit are due at the end of next week, one person said.
The mapping assets have lost value: Nokia bought them for US$8.1 billion in 2008. They were worth about 2 billion euros last year, according to Nokia’s financial reports.
The company wants to sell the mapping unit as it focuses on mobile-network equipment and services to better compete with Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
Nokia said last week that it agreed to buy Alcatel-Lucent for 15.6 billion euros to create the world’s largest supplier of equipment that powers mobile-phone networks.
Some of the world’s largest technology companies might be interested in Nokia’s mapping technology to improve their navigational software, a standard feature of smartphones. Apple struggled in 2012 when it debuted mapping software for its operating system, which gave users poor directions and mislabeled landmarks. Apple eventually allowed Google Inc’s mapping application on iPhones and iPads to assuage critics.
Private-equity firms Silver Lake Management LLC, Hellman & Friedman LLC, Apax Partners LLP and General Atlantic LLC might also bid, the people said.
German publication Manager Magazin reported on Wednesday that companies including Facebook Inc, a group of German automakers including BMW AG, Volkswagen AG’s Audi and Daimler AG, and Hellman & Friedman were also looking at HERE.
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