Motorola: Digital Map-Maker Navteq Wouldn't Have Been Good Fit

CHICAGO (AP)--Motorola looked into the possibility of buying Navteq before rival Nokia struck a deal for the digital map-maker but rejected an acquisition because it was not a good strategic fit, company CEO Ed Zander said.

"We looked at it and went on our way," Zander told students and teachers of the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business on Monday. "We didn't even think about it."

He called the $8.1 billion price tag for Navteq "stunning."

Nokia is acquiring Chicago-based Navteq as part of its strategy to move into wireless applications, adding navigation services to the music applications it also is branching into.

"That's not our strategy," Zander said. "We are not in the applications business."

He also noted that "getting into the business of your customers" can be dangerous. Analysts have noted the risk Nokia faces of alienating wireless carriers - its biggest customers - by coming up with its own plans for mapping and music.

Zander also said his battle earlier this year with financier Carl Icahn was all business and not a personal grudge match. He said he still sometimes stops in to see Icahn when he is in New York, as he does with other large shareholders.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Posted to the site on 9th October 2007