Why Facebook May Pay $1B for Israeli Waze

Image by haaretz

By Amir Teig and Inbal Orpaz (Haaretz) May 9, 2013

Facebook is currently in advanced negotiations to buy the Israeli navigation company Waze. The total purchase price is said to be roughly $1 billion, significantly higher than the $200 million to $300 million Facebook is believed to have offered Waze only six months ago.

Half would be paid in cash, the other half in shares of Facebook.

The main sticking point at this stage of the negotiations is Waze management’s demand that the company remain in Israel. Facebook has reportedly agreed, however, to allow Waze to continue operating as an independent company under its own brand name; development operations would remain in Israel, while the business end of the company would be absorbed by Facebook.

In the past, when Facebook purchased Israeli companies Snaptu and Face.com, Facebook closed the companies’ local operations and moved their core development teams to Silicon Valley. Facebook has yet to open a development center in Israel.

For more, go to Haaretz

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO