Google buys Skybox satellite company for $500 million

Google announced yesterday that it has acquired the company Skybox Imaging Satellite for $500 million (370 million euros) in cash, Reuters reported. The search giant said that the satellites of this small California company provide images to its mapping service, Google Maps. Similarly, Skybox technology could eventually be used to provide internet access and help in natural disasters. The U.S. company said the closing of the transaction is subject to approval by regulatory authorities in the USA.

Skybox has designed and launched its own satellite, skysat-1, with HD cameras. It can help Google in many aspects as Google already has it mapping service, and one of the areas that can be more likely to benefit from their technology is the “Tech Cars” (an area in which Google is working intensively). There is also update that Skybox is planning to increase its fleet of satellites and these will be able to make very precise geospatial analysis to track, for example, changes in the nearby field/location in real time.

The news comes just days after when Wall Street Journal unveiled that Google plans to invest between 1000 to 3000 million in satellites launching to boost internet in those regions where people don’t have internet or have little access to the network. We also heard the news earlier that the Internet giant “Google” wants to launch 180 small satellites with large capacity, which will orbit at a lower altitude than conventional satellites.