Uber plans to purchase assets from Microsoft Bing, including about 100 employees presently involved with image collection activities. The deal, confirmed by both companies, is expected to help Uber bolster its mapping efforts. “A firm doesn’t hire 100 specific-focus engineers in a single move if it doesn’t have large product aspirations,” suggests TechCrunch, also speculating that Microsoft is selling some of its image collection with plans to retain licensing rights. “The new Uber kids are the folks who worked to get image data into Bing, meaning that the search engine’s 3D, aerial and street footage is in large part their doing. You can therefore start to presume what Uber has in mind.”