The Market is Coming Navteq's Way: Can They Handle It?

Navteq (NVT) is an interesting company that “provides digital map information, and related software and services for use in various navigation, mapping, and geographic-related applications, including products and services that provide maps, driving directions, turn-by-turn route guidance, fleet management and tracking, and geographic information systems. The company offers these products and services to end users by its customers on various platforms, including self-contained hardware and software systems installed in vehicles; personal computing devices, such as personal digital assistants and cell phones; server-based systems, including Internet and wireless services; and paper media”.

It’s one of those companies that has been around for a long, long, long time. 1985, to be specific, is when the company was founded. Today, it is public, trades under the symbol NVT, and has a market cap close to 3 billion dollars.

It is also one of those companies that has the market coming its way, as I have written is the case with Tessera (TSRA).

Why?

Well, just fast forward 5 years. It would be safe to say, that GPS systems would become standard fare for all car manufacturers, as well as all cellular phone handsets. Besides those two humongous markets there is, of course, the Internet, with its strong push towards providing local information, the demand for mapping data from Navteq will continue to escalate in leaps and bounds.

Soon, I believe, all the newspapers (International, National, Regional, Local, Community) would also become customers of Navteq, to provide mapping services online, adding to the offerings from Google, Yahoo, and others.

Navteq, however, is probably also a company that doesn’t really know how to leverage the trends that are coming in their favor. So far, they were not in a position to attract the creme-de-la-creme of the tech talent pool. But now, they ought to be able to do that.

NVT 1-yr chart