In a bid to improve its mapping services, Apple has acquired Toronto-based Locationary, a start-up company that specializes in crowd-sourced data such location data such as business hours, parking availability and Wi-Fi access. This information will likely be added to its mapping software to provide additional information about a certain business or point of interest.
The terms of the acquisition were not revealed but the purchase price is in the “multiple tens of millions of dollars” according to an unnamed source familiar with the negotiations. The acquisition includes both the Locationary team and its technology, including the recently launched Saturn data exchange and synchronization platform.
Apple confirmed the purchase with a short statement to AllThingsD: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”
According to The Globe and Mail, Locationary is the first Canadian acquisition by Apple in the last decade.
Sources : The Globe and Mail // AllThingsD