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Suitors for Nokia’s Mapping Tech

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It appears that three different parties are competing for Nokia’s map technology. The interested parties include a partnership between Baidu and Uber, a consortium German carmakers, and Tencent out of China. However, the CEO of the Finish company, Rajeev Suri has publicly stated that Nokia is not in any rush to sell Here, its mapping services unit. The interest for the technology has been ramping up, but it seems that they are waiting it out fore even higher bids.

Whichever party does pony up for the Here technology could gain an upper hand in the next transformation within the auto industry. Mapping technology is currently valued at such a premium because it is absolutely essential in developing driverless car technology and products.

Here is considered to be the best technology on the market, but TomTom and, obviously, Google Maps make up their chief competitors.

Nokia has been shopping Here around the open market for over a month now, and has received bids as high as $3 billion. Here, which boasts international offices in both Chicago and Berlin, stems from Navteq. Nokia purchased the American firm Navteq in 2008 for more than $6 billion.

The group made up of German automobile manufacturers including Audi, BMW, and Daimler have teamed up the General Atlantic to make a bid at some point in the middle of May. Nokia leadership is expected to make a final decision regarding this bid in June.

The tech-giant Uber is interested in Here to expedite the development of driverless cars
The tech-giant Uber is interested in Here to expedite the development of driverless cars

Uber and Baidu have teamed up to make an offer of $3 billion for the mapping system. Industry experts believe Uber is interested in the tech so it can begin deploying driverless taxis on streets across the world. If successful, Uber would eliminate many costs associated to its drivers.

Here possesses several intriguing products for its suitors including a feature called HD Live Map, a cutting edge HD mapping serve. Furthermore, the Here team is in the midst of creating a system that can learn from people’s actual driving habits.

Industry analysts believe that Here will earn more than $650 million in 2015 alone. This number is more than ten-fold high than that of TomTom’s expected revenue.

 

Twitter Shares Plummet

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The growth of Twitter’s user base has dramatically slowed down in recent years. However, investors overlooked the stagnant level of users as the tech company constituently increased its advertisement revenue.

Twitter’s numbers are becoming less and less impressive by the quarter as the social media behemoth, Facebook, and other companies are finding innovative ways to spur ad revenue growth. Twitter simply has not kept up with its silicon valley neighbors in this regard.

The stock plummeted this week when the company released disappointing financial reports. This report for Q1 was scheduled to be released after the close of the market Tuesday. However, due to a technical glitch, Selerity, was able to obtain the reports several hours early. Twitter stock took a nose dive before they quickly halted trading. The price of shares fell even further after the results were fully released. By the market’s close, Twitter shares fell by nearly twenty percent.

Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo
Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo

The report showed that the company’s revenue increased by nearly seventy-five percent since the beginning of 2015. However, this growth was less than that of both Q4 of 2014, and the industry’s predictions. Twitter leadership believes this dip in revenue is due to an advertising model they introduced this quarter. The cost of ads is based on the result of a click, instead of just the click itself. There is still debate as to whether this advertisement model will last in the long run.

Many industry analysts expect CEO Dick Costolo to be axed as result of the meager results since he began his post two years ago.

The company announced that just more than 300 million people use Twitter once or more per month during Q1. This increased from the 290 million users at the end of 2014. The future may be bleak for Twitter if executives are unable to figure out how to increase its user base or the amount of advertisement revenue generated.

Twitter’s revenue for the first quarter stood at $430 million.

Ryanair to Offer Ultra Cheap Transoceanic Fares

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Ryanair, a discount airline that is popular, and infamous, in some circles, has announced recently that it is considering establishing ultra-discounted cross-Atlantic flights. Some believe these flights, which are at least four years away from fruition, could be as astoundingly cheap as $10 per one-way ticket. Ryanair known for its unconventional business practices could simply be  trying to garner attention. Regardless, the prospect of this new competition strikes fear into some of the largest European airlines given the difficulties they are already experiencing maintaining revenue in their continent and abroad.

Officials from the Dublin-based airline, confirmed that the Ryanair board approved these plans. Company leadership sees this opportunity as the logical next step as the demand for cheap airfare between Europe and America is higher than ever.

The Dublin-based Ryan Air could shake up the market with their new ultra cheap transatlantic airfare
The Dublin-based Ryan Air could shake up the market with their new ultra cheap transatlantic airfare

The more nimble airlines are already offering airfares around the $100 mark, but it remains to be seen if Ryanair can make their business model operate effectively on a truly global scale.  Another discount European airline, Norwegian Air Shuttle currently operates flights to America including six major cities from European cities such as Stockholm, Copenhagen, and the outskirts of London.  Norwegian Air Shuttle offers one-way tickets as low as $240.  The Icelandic Airline, WOW, the Canadian Airline WestJet, and Lufthansa are already offering similarly cheap tickets from Europe to America. However, analysts are uncertain how sustainable these offerings are given the difficulties to make a long-term profit charging such a low fee.

Cheap long-distance flights have long been immensely appealing to airlines, but are a tricky ordeal for a number of reasons.  The combination of balancing costs, managing logistics, and making the planes comfortable enough for long flights has proved difficult to master. Analysts point out that, while young travelers may be willing  sacrifice comfort, those travelling for business are unlikely to opt for such flights. In response to this, Ryanair officials have stated that it would begin to offer business class and premium seating, breaking from the one-class seating model it has employed  for years.