Google announced plans yesterday to buy the satellite group Skybox Imaging for $500 million in a move aimed at improving mapping and other services using geospatial data.
“We´ve agreed to acquire Skybox Imaging, and we look forward to welcoming them to Google,” Google said in a statement.
“Their satellites will help keep our 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.”
Skybox said in a blog post earlier that the goal of the five-year-old firm was “to revolutionize access to information about the changes happening across the surface of the Earth.”
“We´ve built and launched the world´s smallest high-resolution imaging satellite, which collects beautiful and useful images and video every day… The time is right to join a company who can challenge us to think even bigger and bolder, and who can support us in accelerating our ambitious vision.”
