Google has acquired Waze, a high tech Israeli navigation
software company for $1.03B. Waze’s smartphone application combines GPS
capabilities with social networking features, which allows real time updates to
traffic reports, road congestion, directions, speed traps and more by its
intelligent use of crowdsourcing big data. UASBIG views this acquisition
positively as a sale to Google can give Waze a greater ability to monetize its
customer base, which currently consists of nearly 50MM users. Also the move is
likely to lead to navigation updates to Google’s current platform which will further
extend Google’s lead over rivals- most notably Apple in the navigation space.
The stock was relatively flat off the news and is trading currently around the
levels we purchased it. We reiterate our buy thesis for Google with conviction that
this acquisition will help increase advertising revenue, which was the
prominent catalyst to our investment thesis.
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