Google closes the deal to purchase Israeli map app company Waze, and seals it with a $1.3 billion kiss. Facebook was in the market for the same acquisition, but the social media giant wanted the Israeli based company to move stateside, which wound up being the deal killer.

The Times of Israel notes that this is a valuable move for Google, as it essentially keeps a potentially valuable tool away from its rivals, while gaining technology that could improve the accuracy and usefulness of its own popular navigation system.

The acquisition announced Tuesday ends several months of speculation involving Waze, the Ra’anana-based crowdsourced driving and navigation app, which has more than 50 million users worldwide. The company flirted with suitors interested in its rapidly growing service, which blends elements of a social network into its maps to produce more precise directions and more reliable information about traffic conditions.



“To help you outsmart traffic, today we’re excited to announce we’ve closed the acquisition of Waze,” Google announced via a statement from Brian McClendon, a vice president at the company. “This fast-growing community of traffic-obsessed drivers is working together to find the best routes from home to work, every day.”

Google Inc. is believed to have trumped two of its fiercest foes, Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc., in the bidding for Waze. The start-up is based in Israel but also maintains a Palo Alto, California, office near all three of the Silicon Valley giants.

Google already has its own mapping and driving app, and competes with Waze, but the latter dominates in most of the markets where Google’s Navigator app is used. As such, Google and Waze are competing in the same space, but most users agree that the Waze app is much more elegant and user-friendly than the Google one.

Waze is available for download here at Majorgeeks.