http://www.economist.com/news/business/21579468-purchase-israeli-start-up-shows-allure-online-maps-street-plan
On the internet such maps are valuable assets—which is why Google has paid just over $1 billion for Waze, a five-year-old Israeli firm. Waze, the creator of a traffic and navigation app for smartphones, was much sought after. Apple was rumoured to have been interested. And before Google swiped it, Facebook, which lacks maps of its own, was said to be close to a deal. Talks reportedly failed because Waze’s team did not want to move to California. Announcing the takeover on June 11th, Brian McClendon, head of Google’s maps business, wrote that Waze’s product developers would “remain in Israel and operate separately for now”.
