Apple Inc in a private deal agreed to purchase web mapping firm Poly9 Group, Inc.

The news that shocks me is that just before this deal, Poly9 Group was left with no venture money and with few employees, it official website is also down since a long time.

The official confirmation on the acquisition has not be announced by Apple and Poly9 but cyberpresse.ca reveals that Poly9 employees have been relocated in Silicon Valley.

Surprisingly this is not the first mapping application acquired by Apple, first it acquired Placebase last year and now Poly9 group.

So Apple is it preparing similar application like Google maps? Could this be the end of Google Maps in Apple iPhone and iPads?