Despite the strong position, though, Nokia’s mapping unit last year generated only 7 percent, or $1.2 billion, of the company’s total revenue, excluding its handset unit, according to corporate filings. The division also reported an operating loss of $212 million over the same period, as the company continued to invest in the mapping operation, which has 6,000 employees, or around 11 percent of Nokia’s remaining work force of 55,000.

The weak financial figures have led many analysts to question whether the company has the deep pockets required to keep pace in mapping, especially since it has few existing connections to Nokia’s other businesses. Besides its auto clients, Nokia licenses Here to companies including Microsoft, for its Bing search engine; to Amazon, for the Kindle Fire tablet; and to Yahoo for its Flickr photo service. FedEx now uses Here mapping data to manage its fleet of delivery trucks worldwide.

Already, there is talk that Nokia could decide either to sell or spin off the division, so the company can focus on its core mobile networking business. The networking unit, which manufacturers cellphone towers and other telecommunications hardware for carriers, will generate almost 90 percent of the company’s annual revenue after the handset deal is closed. That means Here might be more valuable to someone else than to Nokia.

“There are only a few mapping businesses in the world,” said Ehud Gelblum, a Citigroup analyst in New York. “It’s a valuable asset.”

Microsoft fought hard to buy the unit as part of the recent handset sale. But it could not agree with Nokia on a price, according to several people with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Analysts say that Nokia’s mapping division, whose price tag could reach more than $6 billion, might be attractive to the likes of Samsung and other large handset makers to reduce their dependence on Android for smartphones and tablets.