Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has acquired Multimap, one of the oldest online mapping companies in UK and Europe, for an undisclosed price. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. MSFT said the new acquisition will complement its existing offerings such as Virtual Earth, Live Search, Windows Live services.

The site/service was founded in 1996 for UK, and has since expanded for other countries in Europe. It provides maps of about 48 countries to both internet users and businesses such as Hilton, Vodafone, (NYSE: VOD) Yell.com and others. It has raised about 2 million GBP in funding since it started. More in the release.

From this FT story late last month on the local mapping/info rivals: It took until 2003 to get Multimap to profit - and although it now employs 120 staff, gets 10 million unique visitors a month to its website and expects £12m in revenues this year, it made only a modest pre-tax profit of £877,000 in 2006.

WSJ: Multimap’s location-based services could also integrate with aQuantive, the advertising platform Microsoft acquired in May for $6 billion, Microsoft said. Multimap itself has been building advertising services in the past year, launching services that allow people to find and book hotel and restaurant reservations online, as well as buy historic and aerial photos.

Update: Times of London reports that the price was £24.4m, half of which would go to founder Sean Phelan.

• UK Local Directory Firms: Mapping The Minutiae