Nokia announced a $12 Billion acquisition of map provider Navteq yesterday. Only time will tell if this acquisition will prove to be the next Skype (where eBay overpaid and had to write down the value of Skype) or the next MySpace (which looks to be a bargain at $580 million).My question is this: Does Nokia need to own Navteq?It is rumored that Google was bidding against Nokia in the acquisition race, so there is no doubt that the price may have been pushed beyond the boundaries of logic. It also didn’t help Nokia that the price of Navteq stock has tripled over the last 52 weeks (thanks in part to TomTom’s acquisition of TeleAtlas – the provider of Google’s maps). Nokia has paid almost five times as much for Navteq than TomTom paid for TeleAtlas.I’ll give Nokia strategy points for location-based services having finally reached the point in time where … Continue reading →

Recently I heard a guy telling a story about how he goes out a few times a year on a buddy’s boat and that one day his buddy let it slip that he spends $30,000 a year mooring and maintaining his boat. My reaction? Wow! $30,000? In fact his buddy’s wife joke’s that the only reason she’s working is to support the boat. That made me think that if I ever find myself thinking about buying a boat, I’ll just rent one instead. I checked quickly online and found the going day rate for a nice ski boat to rent to be about $500 (depending on location). If the guy in the story is like most people who own a boat, he gets out maybe ten days a year, meaning it’s costing him $3,000 a day plus the cost of buying the boat. So maybe renting a boat is better … Continue reading →