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Facebook’s billion-dollar Waze deal reportedly hits a serious snag

Published May 13th, 2013 11:55AM EDT
Facebook Waze Acquisition Problems

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Facebook’s bid to buy social navigation company Waze has seemingly hit a serious snag that has stalled the deal for the time being. Calcalist, the Israeli newspaper that first broke news of Facebook’s plans to acquire Waze, has followed up its original report with news that the two companies are having problems coming to terms in a few key areas.

The biggest issue appears to be Facebook’s desire to shutter Waze’s Israel-base research and development center and transfer several key Waze employees to Facebook’s U.S. headquarters. According to the paper’s sources, Waze CEO Noam Bardin and company founders Ehud Shabtai, Uri Levine and Amir Shinar insist that the firm’s main R&D center should remain operational and they want to keep all of their employees in Israel.

Talks surrounding the issue have reportedly been going on for weeks, but no agreement has been reached at this point.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.