Nokia Becoming Web Company

Nokia (NYSE: NOK), is acquiring car navigation devices and mapping services company Navteq for $8.1 billion to gain digital maps of 69 countries. "Being able to bring people, time, place, context to your mobile device, we think will be quite powerful", said Nokia's CFO Richard Simonson.

The acquisition, Nokia's biggest, will add maps to its mobile phones and enable the roll out of location based services. "Location-based services are one of the cornerstones of Nokia's Internet services strategy", said CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. "The acquisition of Navteq is another step toward Nokia becoming a leading player in this space".

Nokia, is moving fast to address the demand for mobile services and counter the threat of Google (NASD: GOOG) in the mobile market. Google has been making inroad with device manufacturers and carriers to provide Google Maps as the default mapping service on their handsets. Google has an initiative with BMW to provide in car mapping services. Sales of navigation products is expected to triple to $12.8 billion by 2010, according to iSuppli Corp.

Last month, Nokia acquired Enpocket to add technology for placing advertisements through text messages and e-mail. The mobile advertising market is dominated by Google and Yahoo. Global sales are estimated to rise to $11.4 billion by 2011 from $2.17 billion currently, according to Informa Telecoms & Media Group.

Previously, Nokia acquired Loudeye to create a mobile music service to counter the iTunes and diversify its offerings. The services enables user to download music directly to their handset. Devices with mobile music players and cameras fueled a 74% increase in profit in the first half of this year for the company.

Nokia is transforming itself from a traditional handset devices manufacturer with a single revenue stream to a product and services company with broader revenue streams.