German car firms buy maps for self-drive

German carmakers BMW, Audi, and Mercedes will pay around €2.5bn to buy Nokia’s maps business, beating out high-tech rivals for location services seen as key to the future of self-driving cars.

Germany’s three premium carmakers joined forces and will hold equal stakes in the business, known as HERE, clubbing together to keep the assets from falling into the hands of Internet rivals in Silicon Valley or China.

The deal has an enterprise value of €2.8bn, including liabilities worth nearly €300m, for which Nokia will compensate the carmakers, said the Finnish company. The transaction is likely to close in the first quarter of 2016.