LONDON — Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. has bought, for $8.1 billion, mapping and navigation-software maker Navteq Corp.

Earlier on Monday (Oct.1) the Wall Street Journal suggested the two sides have been in discussions for weeks, but cautioned the deal could still collapse over a series of last-minutes issues.

Navteq (Chicago, Illinois), which has a market value of around $7.65 billion, represents one of Nokia's largest-ever acquisitions and will help the Finnish phone maker expand even further into software and mobile services, a strategy the handset maker is already embarked on by, for instance, offering music downloads.

As part of this shift, Nokia it recently unveiled Ovi, a new brand under which it plans to provide Internet-based services such as a music store.

At the launch of Ovi, Nokia CEO Oli Pekka Kallasvuo stressed: "Devices alone are not enough anymore".

Nokia over the last year has also repeatedly emphasized the importance of location-based services. In February it unveiled its first mass-market navigation-enabled phone, the N6110 Navigator, and has since launched several other navigation devices.

Navteq, one of the world's leaders in electronic mapping, provides the software upon which in-car navigation devices are based. It also enables location-based mobile-phone services that let users identify nearby restaurants on a map or be guided turn-by-turn to a destination.

The phone-based navigation systems work similarly to the car-based devices sold by TomTom or Garmin.

However, location based services have to date been slow to take off in the cellular sector.