Facebook and Nokia have quietly made a deal to integrate the Finnish companys Here maps into Facebooks mobile web version, as well as its Instagram and Messenger apps, despite Nokia currently looking to sell its mapping division.

The sale of the mapping unit, which has an estimated value of $2bn (£1.3bn), has been confirmed by Nokia following rumours last month, with possible buyers including Apple, Samsung, Baidu, Yahoo and others.

Also included in the list of potential buyers was Facebook, and with this new deal, which was not announced by either company but has been confirmed, many are likely to place the social network at the top of the list of likely new owners.

According to Techcrunch, Facebook is not only using Here maps within its apps, but also using the units geocoding solution, providing a significant amount of location data to both Facebook and users when they tag a location within any of the apps.

Facebook has not changed the mapping options used within its flagship apps, which default to Apple Maps on iOS and Google Maps on Android devices, but this could well change in the future if the company acquires its own established mapping unit.

If Facebook is not the eventual owner of the Here unit, then the fact that it has established a relationship with the social network may well help Nokia fetch a higher price, or alternatively could drive potential buyers away who dont wish to be entangled by existing deals.