In an effort to streamline procedures, Google announced on Thursday that teams working on the mapping application Waze and products like Google Maps will be combined as of December 9. According to a Google spokeswoman, the Alphabet Inc.-owned business will incorporate Waze, which it purchased in 2013 for $1 billion, into Google Geo, its portfolio of real-world mapping products that also includes Google Maps, Google Earth, and Street View.
Waze CEO Neha Parikh will exit the company following a transition period, Google said, adding that Waze will continue to be a standalone app, with about 151 million monthly active users worldwide.
“By bringing the Waze team into Geo’s portfolio of real-world mapping products, the teams will benefit from further increased technical collaboration,” the spokesperson said.
In a letter dated July 10, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said the company would streamline processes and consolidate investments where they overlap.
In February 2021, Waze’s former top executive Noam Bardin said it struggled to grow within Google and that Waze could have “probably grown faster and much more efficiently had we stayed independent.” (Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
