Garmin acquires Navigon

Garmin Ltd and Navigon AG announced today that the two companies have signed an agreement for Garmin to acquire privately-held Navigon AG. Known in the iOS community for its very popular MobileNavigator series of turn-by-turn GPS apps, Navigon also manufactures a number of portable navigation devices as well as developing software for PNDs and other smartphone platforms. In announcing the acquisition, Garmin’s president and COO Cliff Pemble highlighted the strategic nature of Navigon’s application portfolio, stating that “With Navigon, we are also acquiring one of the top-selling navigation applications for the iPhone and Android platforms – something that we expect will help drive revenue for the combined company going forward.” Although one of the largest GPS navigation product manufacturers, Garmin was relatively late in releasing its own turn-by-turn GPS app for the iOS platform, debuting its StreetPilot application for iOS only six months ago after an earlier announcement in November that it was abandoning its own Nuvifone GPS smartphone product. It is unclear whether both the Garmin and Navigon iOS apps will continue to be developed independently; however Navigon will continue to operate as a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions and financial terms of the transaction are not being released.