8 ms·

Uber Acquires Part of Bing’s Mapping Assets

121 points by caseysoftware 11y ago

erickhill 11y ago
This is notable in my mind as I can't recall a "reverse-acqui-hire" of this size quite like this. What I mean is, usually it is the MSFTs/GOOG/APPLs of the world scooping out chunks of tech talent from smaller firms or taking them over altogether, not the other way around.
AndrewKemendo 11y ago
This acquisition plus the Carnegie Mellon robotics lab acquisition [1] makes it pretty certain they are doubling down and putting huge technical investments into autonomous cars. They are perfect for it too - but damn if that isn't quick considering how long they have been on the market. [1] http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carnegie-mellon-in-robotics-1433084582 http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carne...
- FlailFast 11y ago
  Agreed, and another thing they're doubling down on: disentangling themselves from Google. Eventually they'll stop using Google Maps, and I'd guess Google Ventures will sell their stake in Uber at their next stratospheric private financing raise, if they haven't already. It's vaguely reminiscent of Google/Apple's friendly status up until 2007, when it quickly deteriorated to "frenemy" then "direct competitor in nearly every market."
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - hooo 11y ago
    Why would Google Ventures sell their stake? I've heard that they are not strategic to Google.
  - jeffbr13 11y ago
    Ah, but wouldn't Google want to keep it's investments in sectors that it believes will grow, even if they're competing with them, a la Microsoft & Apple[1]? [1]: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/05/apples-stock-rise-could-have-meant-5-billion-for-microsoft/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/05/apples...
- choppaface 11y ago
  Uber has had a lot of trouble with routing their drivers using directions from Apple Maps. (E.g. in SF, Apple Maps commonly recommends making [either illegal or dangerous] left turns off of Market Street). Sounds like this acquisition focused on engineers who process street-view-like image/sensor data, which Uber could probably collect much more quickly than Microsoft. It makes sense that they'd want to have engineers who were good at gardening the data (tho not necessarily doing robotics/CV-oriented research on it). This purchase has some rather realistic near-term wins.
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
    Those are just 'disruptive' lefts.
  - fennecfoxen 11y ago
    Illegal left turns across Market Street? That's not so bad. If I'm heading home from south Brooklyn then Uber tells my driver to make a right turn into a "do not enter / buses only" area followed by a left turn that takes you the wrong way on a one way street. (Someone with too much time on their hands can probably figure out my address from that description. Or my Instagram feed.)
  - tuxracer 11y ago
    If the Uber driver is using an Android phone the Uber app can launch the native Google Maps navigation. For the short term it wouldn't take much other than providing or even requiring Android devices for the driver
    - superuser2 11y ago
      UberPool requires the driver to accept fares during navigation.
onewaystreet 11y ago
At first glance this seems like a terrible business decision by Microsoft.
- umeshunni 11y ago
  Satya Nadella did just state in an employee memo that Microsoft has to "make some tough choices in areas where things are not working". This and their exit from the display ads business (http://seekingalpha.com/news/2605555-bloomberg-microsoft-exiting-display-ads-1200-jobs-affected http://seekingalpha.com/news/2605555-bloomberg-microsoft-exi... ) seems to be a move in that direction.
- x0x0 11y ago
  How is bing anything but an enormous gift to google? What I see is a marginally profitable business (finally, following years of huge / $4B per year losses) that obscures google's true monopoly in the US. For all the claims of 20% search marketshare, on my personal blog, google has 98.7% marketshare in the last 10k search visits. It's an open question if bing is worth the hassle -- is it foreseeably profitable enough that msft should continue in that business? imo, it would quite damaging to google if msft shut bing down, reallocated the engineers to more profitable projects, and let google own their 75% + bing's 20% == undeniable monopoly search marketshare, with the immediate antitrust implications, in the US. Microsoft's biggest threats appears to be things like chromebook, google apps, and ios/android rendering windows and office largely unnecessary. I don't see how having a search engine helps any of the above.
  - myth17 11y ago
    A lot of microsoft's cloud expertise comes from running bing. Also how do you expect them to push stuff like cortana if bing (the brain) shuts down.
    - x0x0 11y ago
      Why is cortana important? They will be competing with similar free products that are hardware subsidized or ad subsidized. Where and how does this turn into income? msft just sold off a big chunk of their ad operations, and almost certainly will not be selling large amounts of hardware. Xbox one has sold ~10mm units, and as a road into the living room has been mostly a complete failure. That's neither large enough for ad subsidies or hardware subsidies to work. What am I missing?
angersock 11y ago
I particularly like the part where the assets^Whuman resources^W^Wemployees are bundled off with the tech. Hopefully they got some kind of decent compensation?
- caseysoftware 11y ago
  Usually when there's an acquisition like this, there's some sort of bonus as long as the employee stays for X months/years. I think 2 years is pretty common but considering how young Uber is, it may be different.
  - goatforce5 11y ago
    If they're getting Uber options it could be a real blessing.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
umeshunni 11y ago
Does this mean that Uber now has an engineering presence in the Seattle area? Or are they acquiring the old Vexcel team based in Boulder?
- aaronbrethorst 11y ago
  Uber has had an engineering presence in Seattle for at least four months: http://www.geekwire.com/2015/uber-opening-seattle-engineering-office-led-by-isilon-vet-tim-prouty/ http://www.geekwire.com/2015/uber-opening-seattle-engineerin...
- blackaspen 11y ago
  I immediately thought it was Boulder when I read this, based on what I know of the Bing office here(Boulder). Seattle would make more sense if there's a mapping team AND Uber already there though.
- lyddonb 11y ago
  Not sure if it also include Seattle but it appears to include Boulder http://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_28402965/uber-buys-boulder-bing-operations-shore-up-mapping http://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_28402965/uber-buys-bo...
sehugg 11y ago
Any idea on how this affects their alliance with OpenStreetMap? http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bing http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bing
- nathancahill 11y ago
  It doesn't.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  There are no planned changes to this. https://twitter.com/rbrundritt/status/616028862531530752 https://twitter.com/rbrundritt/status/616028862531530752 (from the Bing Maps program manager)

121 points by caseysoftware 11y ago

This is notable in my mind as I can't recall a "reverse-acqui-hire" of this size quite like this. What I mean is, usually it is the MSFTs/GOOG/APPLs of the world scooping out chunks of tech talent from smaller firms or taking them over altogether, not the other way around.

AndrewKemendo 11y ago

This acquisition plus the Carnegie Mellon robotics lab acquisition [1] makes it pretty certain they are doubling down and putting huge technical investments into autonomous cars. They are perfect for it too - but damn if that isn't quick considering how long they have been on the market. [1] http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carnegie-mellon-in-robotics-1433084582 http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-uber-a-friend-or-foe-of-carne...

FlailFast 11y ago
Agreed, and another thing they're doubling down on: disentangling themselves from Google. Eventually they'll stop using Google Maps, and I'd guess Google Ventures will sell their stake in Uber at their next stratospheric private financing raise, if they haven't already. It's vaguely reminiscent of Google/Apple's friendly status up until 2007, when it quickly deteriorated to "frenemy" then "direct competitor in nearly every market."
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- hooo 11y ago
  Why would Google Ventures sell their stake? I've heard that they are not strategic to Google.
- jeffbr13 11y ago
  Ah, but wouldn't Google want to keep it's investments in sectors that it believes will grow, even if they're competing with them, a la Microsoft & Apple[1]? [1]: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/05/apples-stock-rise-could-have-meant-5-billion-for-microsoft/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2010/05/apples...
choppaface 11y ago
Uber has had a lot of trouble with routing their drivers using directions from Apple Maps. (E.g. in SF, Apple Maps commonly recommends making [either illegal or dangerous] left turns off of Market Street). Sounds like this acquisition focused on engineers who process street-view-like image/sensor data, which Uber could probably collect much more quickly than Microsoft. It makes sense that they'd want to have engineers who were good at gardening the data (tho not necessarily doing robotics/CV-oriented research on it). This purchase has some rather realistic near-term wins.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
  Those are just 'disruptive' lefts.
- fennecfoxen 11y ago
  Illegal left turns across Market Street? That's not so bad. If I'm heading home from south Brooklyn then Uber tells my driver to make a right turn into a "do not enter / buses only" area followed by a left turn that takes you the wrong way on a one way street. (Someone with too much time on their hands can probably figure out my address from that description. Or my Instagram feed.)
- tuxracer 11y ago
  If the Uber driver is using an Android phone the Uber app can launch the native Google Maps navigation. For the short term it wouldn't take much other than providing or even requiring Android devices for the driver
  - superuser2 11y ago
    UberPool requires the driver to accept fares during navigation.

onewaystreet 11y ago

At first glance this seems like a terrible business decision by Microsoft.

umeshunni 11y ago
Satya Nadella did just state in an employee memo that Microsoft has to "make some tough choices in areas where things are not working". This and their exit from the display ads business (http://seekingalpha.com/news/2605555-bloomberg-microsoft-exiting-display-ads-1200-jobs-affected http://seekingalpha.com/news/2605555-bloomberg-microsoft-exi... ) seems to be a move in that direction.
x0x0 11y ago
How is bing anything but an enormous gift to google? What I see is a marginally profitable business (finally, following years of huge / $4B per year losses) that obscures google's true monopoly in the US. For all the claims of 20% search marketshare, on my personal blog, google has 98.7% marketshare in the last 10k search visits. It's an open question if bing is worth the hassle -- is it foreseeably profitable enough that msft should continue in that business? imo, it would quite damaging to google if msft shut bing down, reallocated the engineers to more profitable projects, and let google own their 75% + bing's 20% == undeniable monopoly search marketshare, with the immediate antitrust implications, in the US. Microsoft's biggest threats appears to be things like chromebook, google apps, and ios/android rendering windows and office largely unnecessary. I don't see how having a search engine helps any of the above.
- myth17 11y ago
  A lot of microsoft's cloud expertise comes from running bing. Also how do you expect them to push stuff like cortana if bing (the brain) shuts down.
  - x0x0 11y ago
    Why is cortana important? They will be competing with similar free products that are hardware subsidized or ad subsidized. Where and how does this turn into income? msft just sold off a big chunk of their ad operations, and almost certainly will not be selling large amounts of hardware. Xbox one has sold ~10mm units, and as a road into the living room has been mostly a complete failure. That's neither large enough for ad subsidies or hardware subsidies to work. What am I missing?

angersock 11y ago

I particularly like the part where the assets^Whuman resources^W^Wemployees are bundled off with the tech. Hopefully they got some kind of decent compensation?

caseysoftware 11y ago
Usually when there's an acquisition like this, there's some sort of bonus as long as the employee stays for X months/years. I think 2 years is pretty common but considering how young Uber is, it may be different.
- goatforce5 11y ago
  If they're getting Uber options it could be a real blessing.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

umeshunni 11y ago

Does this mean that Uber now has an engineering presence in the Seattle area? Or are they acquiring the old Vexcel team based in Boulder?

aaronbrethorst 11y ago
Uber has had an engineering presence in Seattle for at least four months: http://www.geekwire.com/2015/uber-opening-seattle-engineering-office-led-by-isilon-vet-tim-prouty/ http://www.geekwire.com/2015/uber-opening-seattle-engineerin...
blackaspen 11y ago
I immediately thought it was Boulder when I read this, based on what I know of the Bing office here(Boulder). Seattle would make more sense if there's a mapping team AND Uber already there though.
lyddonb 11y ago
Not sure if it also include Seattle but it appears to include Boulder http://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_28402965/uber-buys-boulder-bing-operations-shore-up-mapping http://www.dailycamera.com/business/ci_28402965/uber-buys-bo...

sehugg 11y ago

Any idea on how this affects their alliance with OpenStreetMap? http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bing http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Bing

nathancahill 11y ago
It doesn't.
maxerickson 11y ago
There are no planned changes to this. https://twitter.com/rbrundritt/status/616028862531530752 https://twitter.com/rbrundritt/status/616028862531530752 (from the Bing Maps program manager)