Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Google Acquires Endoxon

Google announced the acquisition of part of a business called Endoxon, an Internet mapping company located in Switzerland. This deal looks like it’s part technology and part team. Cash daily says something about 35M CHF.

Fact: Endoxon had AJAX maps long before Google Maps.

Some experts guess that Google wants to get rid of DeCarta’s technology (www.decarta.com) who currently provides mapping, routing & local geo-search for Google Maps & Earth. With Endoxon, they will actually own the technology to do this in-house without having to pay usage fees to DeCarta.

Either way, this shows that Google is getting more serious in local search & mapping.

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