Google Buys Waze, Among Biggest Startup Exits Of The Year

Deal demonstrates need for growth in mobile applications.

Waze, a community-based traffic and navigation app whose users share real-time traffic and road info, announced it was being acquired by Google.

Google confirmed the acquisition and noted that the Waze team will remain in Israel and operate separately for now.

The purchase price was reportedly in excess of $1 billion, rivaling Yahoo!’s purchase of Tumblr for mega-deals for private tech companies this year.  Deal terms were not announced, but a even a cash deal would not be a problem for Google as it had over $15 billion in cash at March 31, 2013.

Waze has been the subject of acquisition rumors for months, with many of tech’s biggest names as purported acquirors, including Apple and Facebook.  This deal demonstrates again that while “social” is okay for a business strategy, it is “mobile” that is driving growth.