Further to the news story we ran earlier today, suggesting the two companies were in talks, Nokia has announced it is to acquire NAVTEQ.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nokia will pay $78 in cash for each share of NAVTEQ including outstanding options for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $8.1 billion (€5.7 billion), or approximately $7.7 billion (€5.4 billion) net of NAVTEQ existing cash balance.

The acquisition has been approved by the board of directors of each company and is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory approvals and NAVTEQ shareholders' approval. It is thought that the deal will close Q1 2008.

NAVTEQ will operate independently and continue to provide the map data platform to navigation industry players. With NAVTEQ, Nokia will strengthen its location based services offering.