Rumor: ‘Google is close to taking over maker of high-res satellite images’

Google is said to be planning to acquire Skybox Imaging in the near future. This American company supplies high-res satellite images and once stated the goal of capturing all places in the world every day in the future.

Google reportedly wants to put roughly one billion dollars on the table for Skybox, TechCrunch writes Friday on the basis of three different sources. They claim that Google and Skybox have been discussing a possible takeover for some time, which are also at an ‘advanced stage’.

Skybox supplies high-resolution satellite photos and video images, whereby, for example, cars are clearly visible on the images. The American company shoots video images daily at thirty frames per second and can film up to one and a half minutes at a time. Skybox manages the satellites, the software and the data centers in-house and is thus able to regularly shoot current images. Skybox once expressed the ambition to capture every place in the world several times a day.

Although both companies do not want to confirm a possible acquisition, there have been rumors about an acquisition for some time. Google may want to provide its map service Maps with more up-to-date images with Skybox. Some of the satellite imagery from that service is known to have been out of date for some time, which would have been one of the reasons Google recently bought drone maker Titan Aerospace.