Microsoft this morning announced the purchase of Multimap, a U.K. company that describes itself as "one of the world's leading providers of online mapping and location-based services. Our company delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more businesses and consumers than any other supplier in Europe."

As usual, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Multimap will operate as a subsidiary of Microsoft's Online Services Group.

In addition to linking up with a host of predictable Microsoft products (Live Search, Virtual Earth) the company sees "future integration potential for a range of other Microsoft products and platforms."