Alphabet sells satellite imagery company for half a billion dollars

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is divesting its satellite imagery business. It concerns the subsidiary Terra Bella, which is being sold for an amount of approximately half a billion dollars to a satellite company called Planet.

Planet announced the news on its website. Terra Bella will be housed at Planet, which includes the seven satellites with which images of the earth are made. Incidentally, Planet itself already has sixty satellites at its disposal. An amount of half a billion dollars will be paid for the acquisition, which translates into 464 million euros.

At the same time, Alphabet has concluded an agreement for the purchase of satellite images from Planet. This is a multi-year deal, in which Alphabet probably wants to use the images for Google services such as Earth and Maps.

Google acquired Terra Bella about 2.5 years ago. Back then it was still a start-up that operated under the name Skybox.