May 9, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Facebook is in advanced talks to buy the Israeli navigation technology firm Waze.

The Israeli business daily Calcalist reported on Thursday that a term sheet, under which Facebook would acquire Waze for between $800 million and $ 1 billion, was signed in recent days after six months of talks.

Waze at the beginning of the year participated in talks with Apple.

The company did not respond to media inquiries about the Facebook deal, but when asked by the Israeli business daily Globes whether Facebook would close the company, as it has done with its previous acquisitions, Waze replied, “Don’t worry, we’ll be all right,” Globes reported.

It would be Facebook’s third acquisition of an Israeli company, after purchasing Snaptu and Face.com.

Waze, a free downloadable navigation app with more than 34 million subscribers, released an updated version in October 2012 which allows users to post their trip on Facebook.

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