TomTom is one of the largest producers of software and hardware for GPS navigation, the value of the company being approximately 1.2 billion dollars on the European stock exchanges. Recently at the Amsterdam Stock Exchange a financial analyst It started to urge his clients to buy TomTom company shares after learning information indicating that Apple would be interested in acquiring TomTom or entering into a partnership. The partnership could consider the licensing of maps for a possible new Maps application that would no longer work based on the Google Maps service but based on another offered by Apple that would probably also have offline maps.
TomTom NV, Europe's biggest maker of portable navigation devices, rose to the highest in seven months after Rabo Securities raised its recommendation, citing strong automotive sales and a potential Apple Inc. hill mapping. "TomTom's undemanding valuation does not fully reflect valuable options for shareholders," Hans Slob, an Utrecht Netherlands-based analyst at Rabo Securities, wrote in a note to clients. Slob sees a tripling potential for business systems, a doubling potential for automotive sales, a potential Apple mapping deal, and, "last but not least, the option of an acquisition of TomTom with a high strategic premium." Rabo raised its recommendation to "buy" from "hold."
Although TomTom's GPS kits contain well-detailed maps for Romania, the App Store application is much different. In it you will find not very detailed maps of Romania, TomTom taking care to map a few cities and nothing more, and if Apple implements this native service in iOS, we might have a big problem using the Maps application for navigation. Of course, for now everything is just rumors because last year Apple had acquired another company that deals with mapping and it was rumored that it would use that one to build its new navigation system for iOS.
