“It would appear (and I’m reading this from the outside, as neither Google nor NAVTEQ can talk about their negotiations with each other) that NAVTEQ doesn’t mind the traditional model of portals paying to offer consumers driving directions. What they’re not comfortable with is offering free API calls. The biggest threat to a data business is free access to the data, at least that’s how NAVTEQ must see it. A free API like the Google API lowers the perceived value of the data.”