Apple may look to acquire TomTom

Apple may be considering acquiring TomTom, the global positional system and mapping company, a Netherlands-based analyst says. Hans Slob at Rabobank International said in a note to investors he believes there's a 30 percent chance of Apple pursuing the Dutch firm, which makes automotive navigation systems and also provides navigation software for mobile telephones and other devices. The move could help Apple quickly recover from the criticism surrounding its flawed mapping app released as part of its iOS 6 software. The application replaced Google Maps in iOS but has been slammed for a numbers of problems including inaccurate location information. "TomTom needs the cash from Apple, and Apple needs the know-how of TomTom," CNET reported Slob as saying. TomTom is a major supplier of mapping data for Apple's Maps, and its data is also used by Waze, Yelp, and NASA. Apple did not respond to requests for comments on the report, CNET said.