Nokia adds to Here armoury with analytics firm Medio Systems
With its devices and services unit off its hands, Nokia is building up its mapping business.
Following Microsoft's €5.4bn acquisition of Nokia's handset arm, the company has three businesses: patents and licensing arm Technologies, its networking unit NSN, and its mapping company Here.
Nokia seems to have been turning its attention to the latter of late. After buying travel guide company Desti last month, it's now purchased analytics company Medio Systems.
Medio Systems, based in Seattle, gathers sensor and connected device data for useful information. That information will be integrated into Nokia's mapping systems to help personalise maps and add context.
"That could mean delivering individual restaurant recommendations to someone ready for lunch, giving drivers routes that match their driving style based on real-time conditions or helping businesses personalise their customer offerings," Nokia said.
It's a similar logic to the purchase of Desti, which aims to give better travel recommendations — on local restaurants or activities, for example — by analysing the context of users' requests.
Nokia said it will also put Medio Systems' analytics to work in its Technologies and NSN arms. It also recently made an acquisition to strengthen its networking arm, acquiring small cells company Mesaplexx last week.
NSN is the largest of Nokia's businesses, around 10 times bigger than Here by revenue and 20 times larger than Technologies. In the first quarter of the year, Here made revenue of €209m, an 18 percent year-on-year decline.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.