First, TechCrunch broke a news story that Apple was planning to acquire Waze and that negotiations between the two were in an advanced stage. Later on, MG Siegler took to TechCrunch for a second time to report that it turns out no negotiations are going on and Apple isn’t planning to buy Waze now or any time soon. It’s time for take number three. This time, The Next Web is chiming in for a third spin on the story.
According to TNW, it turns out both sides did have some truth to them. Apple did want to buy Waze, however negotiations didn’t go very far because Waze respectfully declined the offer. Most of the valuations were wrong too. Waze hadn’t been waiting for a $750 million offer from Apple; multiple sources value the startup at around $200 million. Apple may have still put $500 million on the table, but either way, Waze wasn’t interested in being acquired. The deal is over.
Why would Apple even consider acquiring Waze? The iOS 6 Maps app is kind of, well, suckish; that’s why. Some people (including myself) have yet to have a bad experience with it, while others are getting lost in deserts. The media is portraying it in a negative light and that’s really the only thing that matters to Apple’s image.
Fun fact: Waze already does provide data to Apple’s mapping service. It’s apparently not enough in Apple’s opinion since the company was not-so-secretly dreaming about a full acquisition. In the end, it was all just a dream.