Is Apple about to buy Waze?

Apple is really trying to up its maps game. Rumour has it that the tech giant is attempting to acquire Waze, says Mike Butcher over at Techcrunch. Waze is a social mapping app that allows users to contribute its database through gaming mechanisms.

When Apple released iOS 6 is opted for its own mapping app over veteran Google Maps. The gamble was not so successful for the company as its app proved to be less than perfect and nowhere near ready for the public.

This Waze rumour isn’t the first in Apple’s attempt to fix its map problems. Last year the company was also rumoured to be in talks with popular location-based social network, Foursquare.

“The discussions with New York-based Foursquare come as Apple has been talking to a number of companies that collect local data to improve its new mapping product. The Maps service, released in September, has had a rocky reception and faces fierce competition from Google,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

The Waze rumour seems to be more solid though as some numbers are already being thrown around.

According to Techcrunch, a source confirmed “that negotiations are advanced, but Waze wants $750M and Apple is willing to do $400M plus $100m in incentives. Waze had less than $1M in revenues last year (primarily from ads). Negotiations may take a while.”

If this acquisition goes through it would mean a lot for Apple as Waze’s user-base is growing steadily. This could be what the company needs to finally take on Google in this department. It would also be a great coup for Waze to be bought by the world’s most profitable tech company.

Currently both sides have denied the rumours, with Waze saying it does not “comment on rumours” and Apple saying it does not “comment on rumors or speculation”.