Skip to main content

Apple acquires another navigation company in effort to bolster mapping services

Apple acquires another navigation company in effort to bolster mapping services

Share this story

Apple has purchased yet another company to bolster its mapping and navigation efforts. Coherent Navigation, a Bay Area firm working on high-accuracy GPS and navigation technologies, can now call Apple home.

MacRumors first reported the acquisition earlier today, and an Apple spokesperson later sent confirmation to The New York Times that it had indeed purchased the company. Apple merely provided its boilerplate acquisition statement, which reads: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." Apple did not immediately return requests for comment.

As MacRumours notes, a number of Coherent's employees were recently hired by Apple. It is unclear whether the acquisition was primarily for talent or technology, but Coherent joins a long list of mapping and navigation startups that have been subsumed by Apple. That list includes Locationary, Embark, Hop Stop, WifiSLAM, and BroadMap.