Facebook is in advanced talks to buy Israeli social mapping company Waze, according to a local business reporter, Assaf Gilad, who has been first to the story on a number of similar tech buyouts.

The purchase price of the free, real-time traffic logging and GPS app could be around $1bn, according to the Calcalist journalist, significantly more than previous offers said to have been made but inline with last years Instagram acquisition. The deal would be half cash, half stocks.

Although rumours have ciruclated in the past linking Waze with both Microsoft and Apple, this seems to be the most solid story yet. Negotiations may have stalled because Wazes management are keen to ensure that the company remains in Israel, while similar acquisitions made by Facebook, like Snatptu and Face.com, have been moved to Silicon Valley. Waze is also determined to continue operating as an independent entity.

Why Waze?

The team behind Waze would clearly be a great asset to Facebooks growing mobile operations. Waze itself could provide a useful, unified and interactive cross-platform map experience for Facebook users, who are currently offered Bing while on Facebooks website, and Google Maps on Android.

The app is not currently ad-supported, so like Instagram, this isnt the buyout of a money-making machine. The points-based, community-driven app, which has more than 40m users worldwide spotting speed cameras, petrol stations and traffic jams, makes great use of Twitter to help resolve issues and improve the service it offers. This loyal grassroots could be put off by Facebooks involvement, as Instagrammers were.

But while many were sceptical about Instagrams future, Time Magazine reported last month that the app has more than three times the number of users it had at the time of acquisition – growing from 30m to 100m. However, the piece also points out that the photo-sharing network still isnt making Facebook any money.