Social traffic app Waze rumored to be Facebook’s next big buy

Facebook is rumored to be lining up another billion dollar buy with social traffic app Waze the target this time around.

According to a number of Israeli publications, the social networking giant has been in talks with the navigation startup and is in the advanced due diligence phase of a deal set to be worth between US$800-million and US$1-billion. The two have apparently been in negotiations for the past six months.

TechCrunch is meanwhile reporting and independent source has confirmed that a deal is in the works and that the pricing is accurate. The main issue, apparently, is whether to take Waze to the US or allow it to continue operating out of Israel. The former is what it’s done with its previous Israeli acquisitions Snaptu and Face.com.

When the tech blog reached out to representatives from both companies however, they refused to comment on the matter. “We do not comment on rumors or speculation about the business,” a Waze representative said, while a Facebook spokesperson supplied a similar comment.

As TechCrunch points out, this isn’t the first that Waze, which has a 47-million-strong user base, has been in the crosshairs of acquisition rumors before. Perhaps the most prominent of these rumors had Apple buying the company, although that may well have down to the fact the two were talking a lot prior to the launch of Apple Maps. Waze played a significant role in the development of the maligned product, being used to source data for it.

It’s not entirely clear what Facebook would do with Waze, although TechCrunch suggests that it could fit into the social networks mobile efforts with Home and localised business check-ins.