After months of rumors that Apple or Facebook might buy the navigation and traffic application Waze, three sources say that Google is close to inking a deal to buy the Israeli company for more than a billion dollars. The deal could attract attention from antitrust regulators, as Google is no stranger to online maps, and even if the deal goes through, it could raise other issues. One source said Waze may remain a stand-alone app, but could share information with Google Maps. Waze is also one of several companies contributing data to Apple Maps, and Facebook already has a partnership with the company. It’s unclear how a deal with Google would affect these relationships, but users aren’t known to be very tolerant of companies tinkering with their preferred maps app.
