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Google Acquires Skybox Imaging for US$500 Million

By Kenny Yeo - on 11 Jun 2014, 9:51am

Google Acquires Skybox Imaging for US$500 Million

2014 has been a busy year for Google in terms of acquisitions, and the latest to add to Google's long list of newly acquired firms is Skybox Imaging, a company that specializes in building imaging satellites and satellite imagery.

The deal is said to be worth US$500 million in cash and comes on the heels of other big name acquisitions, such as Nest for US$3.2 billion and DeepMind Technologies for US$650 million.

According to Google, the acquisition of Skybox Imaging will help keep their maps accurate and could also help bring Internet access to less-connected parts of the world. The company said the following in a blog post:

"Skybox’s satellites will help keep Google Maps accurate with up-to-date imagery. Over time, we also hope that Skybox’s team and technology will be able to help improve Internet access and disaster relief — areas Google has long been interested in.”

Other reports suggest that what Google is really interested in is Skybox Imaging's ability to process and make sense of the satellite images that it captures.

Source: Re/code, Forbes

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