Google announced on Tuesday that it had closed its deal to buy Waze, a GPS navigational app developed by Israeli start-up Waze Mobile that features real-time traffic data provided by users to help drivers find the fastest route to a destination. The deal is values at about $1.1 billion.

Waze has nearly 50 Million users around the world.

Google said Waze would remain separate from its own Maps service. Some of Waze’s real-time traffic data will feed into Google Maps, however, and Google plans to incorporate its powerful search capabilities into Waze.

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Waze achieved all the demands it presented to Google in the negotiations: Waze’s activity will remain in Israel, Google cannot fire a single employee out of Waze’s 107 workers, and the entire acquisition sum – about $1 billion – will go into the pockets of the investors, founders and employees in cash, without stocks whose value would change unexpectedly, while they manage their business and employees with the use of software like paystub online.

Google will complete the acquisition within about a month in a bid to integrate Waze into the Android 5.0 operating system, expected to be launched this year.

To download the app click here.

What the video of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulate the CEO and founders of WAZE one their successful sale to google (in Hebrew).

(Taken from NYTimes and YnetNews)