Finnish telecom Nokia has been looking to sell its Here maps business, which has been valued at over $2 billion, and it looks like it may have found a buyer in social media giant Facebook Inc. Reports surfaced today that Facebook has already signed a deal to use Here maps with its mobile site and a few of its mobile apps, and the company is one of several potential buyers for the service along with Apple Inc, Samsung, Alibaba, Baidu, and others.

The Here brand is the umbrella label for several navigation tools currently owned by Nokia, including a standard map program, turn-by-turn GPS navigation, public transportation maps, and more. Nokia originally purchased Navteq, the company that would later be rebranded as Here, for $8.1 billion in 2007, but so far the service has proven to be unprofitable for the telecom.

The company has been looking for a buyer for the navigation platform, and Facebook’s recent deal sets it as a strong candidate.

Facebook Maps?

“We are testing Nokia Here maps across Facebook to give us more control and flexibility in delivering a consistent maps experience,” a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch in an email. “I can confirm that we’re testing Here maps in Android versions of some of our standalone apps like Instagram and Messenger as well.”

Facebook is reportedly using Here’s data to provide better location tagging in status updates, as well as built in navigation for some of its apps. The social network had previously used Microsoft Corp’s Bing Maps for some of these purposes.

Facebook has been aggressively pushing out new apps and features over the last year, including its standalone Messenger app, which is being built out as a full app development platform. This makes Messenger a good candidate to try out new features, and it recently gained the ability to make free VOIP video calls. Maps and navigation features seem like an obvious addition.

Screenshot via Here.com