Ituran to acquire Mapa Group
Location-based applications company receives approval to proceed with acquisition of tion and Control Ltd. Announces the Approval of the Israeli Commissioner for Trade for the Acquisition of Mapa Group
Location-based services is a growing market, so it is worthy to note that the Israeli Commissioner for Trade Practices has approved the acquisition of Mapa Group, Israel’s leading map publisher, by
Azour, Israel-based Ituran Location (NASDAQ:ITRN; TASE:ITRN). The commissioner, though, set several conditions on the approval, and these condtitions must be met by Ituran: Mapa Group should not unreasonably refrain from selling its computerized geographic information (GIS) products and any updates to any customer, and Mapa should not link or condition the supply of its products to a sale of services or other products.
Ituran will purchase the full share capital of Mapa Group for about $9.9 million. In addition, Ituran will pay an additional sum of about $3.1 million to Mapa Group, which will be used to repay Mapa Group’s loans to its shareholders.
Ituran provides location-based services, specializing in mobile asset location, RFID products for automatic meter reading and electronic toll collection. Its technology is also used in homeland security applications.
