Nearmap has truely shaken Eagleview in the US, and if anyone does a rough estimate on just how much Eagleview have spend on Spookfish (and now buying Omniearth) you will end up with a figure well over $15 million dollars.
Even if Eagleview is just investing $15 million to defend themselves against a Nearmap US entry, this logically implies that Eagleview actually sees Nearmap as a real threat that will eventually erode their existing market share by many times their current $15 million investment.
Although we can't be certain as to what Eagleview has estimated in terms of what Nearmap will take from their current market share. I believe at some stage in the past, someone in Eagleview would have to create a solid business case that highlighted a lost of market share of at least $100 to $150 million to Nearmap to justify their current $15 million investment.
Of course, we may never know the initial Eagleview business case details, however moving forward I believe Eagleview's ongoing spending will proportionally give us a silient measure in just how much market share Nearmap could win from Eagleview.
NEA Price at posting:
50.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held