Google has spent $500 million to buy Skybox Imaging, a company that uses small satellites to transmit high-resolution images from space. This announcement comes only two months after google acquired Titan Aerospace which beams Internet signals. Facebook also dropped loads of money on Ascenta, a drone maker that cost the company $20 million back in March.
Google hopes to use Skybox’s satellites to make better maps. Skybox currently has only a single satellite in orbit but plans to fly a fleet of them to cover the globe. Constantly updated satellite images would benefit numerous industries including the agricultural, oil and mechanic.
As of right now, Google has to purchase these types of services from satellite companies and supply the $12 Billion satellite-imagery market is limited. Google already has filled in the gaps by flying planes to gather these in demand images however they have recently been searching for more up to date images.
Buying Skybox transforms Google from a buyer into a supplier. But it may decide that it wants to serve only a single client in Mountain View, Calif. “Skybox will not be a commercial company; it will be a NASA for Google,” says Brock Adam McCarty, who runs image reselling business Apollo Mapping.
Given Google’s traditional focus, Skybox’s services could give users real-time information about mapping services. This vision of the future relies on Skybox’s ability to get more satellites into orbit. In addition, Google has a home-grown project called Loon, which would use balloons to transmit Internet to hard-to-reach places. It is possible to use satellites for this purpose, too—this is how airlines offer in-flight Wi-Fi.
But the Skybox purchase is unlikely to play into that plan anytime soon. “The acquisition of Skybox doesn’t do a whole lot for providing connectivity,” says Michael Blades, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “That’s not what they do.”
For more information read on at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-10/googles-bought-a-satellite-startup-to-make-maps-not-internet-connections
via Jason Grill http://jasongrillkansascity.com/google-buys-satellite-startup/
Jason Grill 