LONDON, England – TomTom should book a ticket for Vegas. The Dutch mapmaker is riding a major hot streak of late; new agreements include Volkswagen of America, Apple and – as of last week – Uber. Financial details of the latest deal were not disclosed but TomTom says that it will provide mapping, traffic and location data for the Uber Driving App in more than 300 cities around the world. TomTom’s stocks surged 8.2% the day the news broke.
Uber is a winner here too. The ridesharing app is under pressure to provide the best mapping and navigation experience for its drivers, thus making their experience more efficient and remunerative than if they were to drive for one of Uber’s competitors. Uber lost out to the German consortium of Daimler, Audi andBMW on a bid for Nokia HERE earlier this year, although some believe that Uber’s bid was just a gambit to put pressure on TomTom at the negotiating table.
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