It seemed worth saying.
TomTom is NOT up for sale. Source: TomTom.com
EBIT -Eu200m 2017… ouch (link to:TomTom.com)
Edit: Correction
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tomtom up for sale ?
the press release denies it
The patents, those lucrative patents are the true value here. Sure, the name has recognition and to whoever buys them might continue their business running parallel to whatever they do (expecially if they retain the current user base).
I wouldn’t be all that surprised if Garmin makes a bid for them. Another GPS-centric company turned sport watch maker with an “ahead of their time” feature (on board music, which is weird its taken this long for it to be a thing in the market at large) and filled with patents and access to things that might strengthen the company.
It doesn’t translate to success in the short-term: just look at Fitbit after their shopping spree last year. What did it do? Floundering stocks, middling sales on the new watch and the same for the most recent. If Fitbit wants to grow, they have to be playing for the long term.
Garmin on the other hand already has a massive chunk of the market, gobbling up Tom Tom might just be a short term bolster (removing a part of the competition from the market), but as you pointed out, Tom Tom’s tech might not be all that good or “cutting-edge.”
It would be interesting to see if Polar grabbed them though…. Or Samsung…