Navteq would like to improve its current share, which already includes most of the Internet mapping market and a split of the handheld device market with Tele Atlas. Its European rival drives the roads, too — the two companies' teams even sometimes spotting one another covering the same turf.

The biggest threat facing the two competitors in the future may be user-generated map content — a mapping equivalent of YouTube, as it were.

Google also could be a rival. The Internet search leader is deep into research, development and even acquisitions related to its mapping services, which include Google Earth as well as Google Maps.

Navteq has shown a knack for adapting to changing technology.

The company was born in 1985 as Navigation Technologies, focusing on kiosks at car rental agencies and hotels where patrons could print out directions and maps for chosen addresses. Dutch conglomerate Philips Electronics became its primary investor starting in 1989, a role it held until recently.

Navteq finally became profitable in 2002, thanks to global positioning systems, a boom in car-based navigation guides and its increasing grip on the exploding Internet mapping market. An initial public offering in 2004 helped ignite fast growth, and today it has more than 3,000 employees in 30 countries and a new headquarters in Chicago.

The company made $110 million on $582 million in sales last year and posted big gains in both categories in the first quarter.

A heavy reliance on the slowing auto market, which accounted for nearly all its sales in 2000 and still brings in about 60 percent, has sent its stock price on a bumpy ride. Hoping to smooth things out, CEO Judson Green, who headed Disney's theme parks division until coming to Navteq in 2000, has steered the company into more diversification.

A pair of acquisitions for a combined $216 million in the past nine months underscore that effort: Traffic.com, which produces live traffic reports for cities around the country, and Map Network, producer of special maps for travel destinations, major hotels and big events like the Super Bowl.

In a swiftly moving business, it's not clear if that will be enough to stave off Tele Atlas and any nascent competitors.

"They're not moving fast enough," said Koslowski. "It's not just a question of acquiring companies like Traffic.com. ... The company needs to focus more on emerging markets."

To map 12 million miles and 69 countries, Navteq has used an estimated 100,000 different sources, from satellite images and aerial photography to maps issued by local governments and commercial companies.

But to Green, the "secret sauce" keeping the company on top of the mapping world is the 700 employees who spend half their work time behind the wheel or in the passenger seat.

"I would say that 80 to 85 percent of the effort that we put into making a digital map is from that very labor-intensive driving that we do," he said. "We cannot find the quality, accuracy or richness of the information from all these other sources unless we go do it our way."