Intel Corp has agreed to acquire mobile navigation software maker Telmap, the chief executive of the Israel-based company said on Sunday.
Details of the deal were not disclosed but Israeli media said Intel is paying about $300 million to $350 million.
Telmap CEO Oren Nissim declined to comment on the price and said the deal was expected to close before the end of the year.
Telmap will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intel, which has two plants and four development centers in Israel, and will retain its brand, management and 210 employees.
"The unique thing about this transaction is that here comes a giant and says 'We really like what you're doing, we believe in your strategy, we want to enhance and go forward. We're not here to swallow you up,'" Nissim told Reuters.
Teaming up with Intel will enable Telmap to provide a "true alternative" to offerings from giants such as Nokia and Google, Nissim said.
"I think to a large extent that from a strategic perspective came the only company that could have come," he said of Intel.
Intel expects Telmap to become much bigger and reach places it hasn't before, whether it be in Europe, Asia-Pacific or the United States, Nissim said, adding Telmap will stay in Israel but expects to recruit workers
In the 20th century, Jews, more than any other minority, ethnic or cultural, have been recipients of the Nobel Prize, with almost one-fifth of all Nobel laureates being Jewish. Of the total Israel has six Nobel laureates.
A total of nearly 700 individuals and 20 organizations have been Nobel recipients. Jewish names appear 127 times on the list, about 18 percent of the total. Of these 48 have been awarded for achievements in the fields of medicine and biomedicine. It is estimated that about one-third of the faculty at Harvard Medical School is Jewish. A 12th century physician Moshe ben Maimon-Rambam (Maimonides) is the role model for a generation of Israeli physicians who became active not only in the care of the sick but in the development of treatments and medical systems.