Brady Forrest of O'Reilly Radar weighs in on the Multimap acquisition:

Live Maps Buys MultiMap; Launches in China

A quote:

"Multimap seems to be more about gaining API traffic than a technology or consumer traffic acquisition. Justin Osmer, a Microsoft spokesperson, told me "Multimap is a mapping leader in the UK and now combined with us Virtual Earth and Live Search Maps is the number one online mapping platform worldwide." Paying customers are hard to beat -- especially in a business as costly as mapping."

Two more blurbs on the acquisition:

From Network World - "Microsoft's online searching service, Virtual Earth, already offers aerial images and proximity searching. However Multimap gives Microsoft an instant client base of business Website customers. Plus the two companies already had a relationship. Multimap had previously partnered with Microsoft to integrate Microsoft's MapPoint front-end software with Multimap's online services on the backend."

Microsoft buys online map company, Multimap | NetworkWorld.com Community

From IT Week - "In the continuing battle between software behemoth Microsoft and search engine giant Google, Microsoft has acquired UK tech firm Multimap, to better compete with Google Maps. Although no figures have been disclosed, the deal is rumoured to be around $50 million."

Microsoft acquires Multimap - vnunet.com