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Garmin, TomTom Make Nice, at Least in Court
http://lbs.gpsworld.com/gpslbs/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=473243
Nov 15, 2007
GPS World
Garmin Ltd. and TomTom may still be fighting over Tele Atlas, but the
companies said today they have resolved their legal differences.
Both announced that they had settled all of their current
intellectual property litigation, which had been taking place in the
United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Wisconsin and Texas. Neither party
disclosed the details of the settlement.
Garmin had originally accused TomTom of infringing upon patents
covering both navigation software and hardware; TomTom in turn
countersued, also alleging patent infringement.
The settlement comes as the industry watches and waits to see if
Garmin will try and trump TomTom once again in the bidding war over
Tele Atlas.
TomTom originally announced plans to acquire the digital map supplier
last summer, offering 21.25 per share, or about 2 billion. Then at
the beginning of this month Garmin made a counteroffer of 24.50, or
about 2.3 billion ($3.3 billion). Tele Atlas reviewed the offer, and
gave TomTom a week, until November 8, to respond with a better offer,
or else it would recommend to its board to pursue a merger with
Garmin. TomTom actually responded a day before that deadline, saying
that it was offering to make a new bid for Tele Atlas at 30 ($43.67)
per share, or about 2.9 billion ($4.2 billion).
Garmin has said it was reviewing TomTom's new offer, but hasn't yet
made a public response beyond that.
