The first part of what you said lines up with my memories of that era. As for the negotiations, the scuttlebutt at the time was that Apple was worried negotiat

The first part of what you said lines up with my memories of that era. As for the negotiations, the scuttlebutt at the time was that Apple was worried negotiations with Google would break down, as tensions were already rising between the two, since there was some animosity over Eric Schmidt possibly using his knowledge of Apple's product roadmap (he was a member of Apple's board at the time) to help Android. Since the contract ended at the end of the calendar year, it would potentially leave Apple with a non-functional maps app; since Apple didn't (and still doesn't, although they're getting better about this) like to ship big feature updates outside of major OS releases, it was either release their own mapping service before it was fully-cooked or give in to Google's demands.