Within the one month deadline for examination the Bundeskartellamt has cleared the parallel acquisition of minority holdings in HERE by Intel and a consortium consisting of the Chinese companies NavInfo and Tencent and the state-owned investment fund GIC (Singapore). HERE provides digital mapping databases which have up to now been used above all for classical navigation applications. In 2015 a consortium of German car manufacturers (BMW, Daimler, Audi) acquired HERE from Nokia (cf. press release of 6 October 2015 [link]). HERE and the car manufacturers want to jointly develop mapping databases for the future autonomous driving market.

With Intel the car manufacturers are enlisting a provider which is expected to contribute substantially to the development of the technologies necessary for autonomous driving. NavInfo generates digital mapping databases for China. Tencent is a Chinese internet provider. As yet the mapping databases offered by HERE do not cover China. With the participation of NavInfo, HERE will now gain access to the Chinese market.

Andreas Mundt, President of Bundeskartellamt: "The project will not have any negative effects on competition. In particular, it is not expected that other car manufacturers will be foreclosed from technologies which are essential for autonomous driving. There is no overlap in HERE's and NavInfo's activities either, due to their different geographical range. The Bundeskartellamt therefore cleared both participations."