Japanese tire maker Bridgestone buys data firm TomTom Telematics for $1.03 billion as it looks ahead to a future when cars and even the tires used in them become part of the Internet of Things (IoT).
Soma Kawakami reported on the acquisition for the Nikkei Asian Review:
TomTom Telematics advises clients on safe driving and route selection by collecting data from equipment installed on vehicles, serving about 860,000 autos worldwide. The purchase will expand Bridgestone’s reach in vehicle data as the company moves to develop and sell services that help tire customers like freight companies boost efficiency.
Key regional subsidiary Bridgestone Europe will buy the TomTom unit by the end of June under an agreement announced Tuesday. The deal marks Bridgestone’s first acquisition of this scale since its 2007 purchase of American retread tire company Bandag.
Bridgestone offers services that use “internet of things” technology to notify mining equipment and commercial-vehicle customers of the optimal time to change tires. The company plans to enlarge its team of data scientists to 100 as early as this year.
[…]
Founded in 1991, TomTom offers map services in 149 countries. The company is shifting focus from mainstay car navigation systems toward high-resolution digital maps used in automated driving but faces tough competition there from such players as Google. With the unloading of the telematics unit, it plans to pour more resources into growth fields.
