Google acquires satellite company Skybox

Google has acquired Skybox Imaging for 500 million dollars, converted 370 million euros. Skybox is an American company that specializes in providing images of the Earth via cheap satellites.

Initially, the acquisition should help Google get up-to-date images for Google Maps, but in the future, Google hopes the satellites can help roll out the Internet to remote areas. “That’s an area we’ve been interested in for a long time,” Google said in a brief announcement about the acquisition.

Skybox Imaging claims to create the smallest high-resolution image capture satellite to date. The American company was founded in 2009 and focuses on producing the small satellites as cheaply as possible. In November last year, the company launched its first satellite into orbit, the SkySat-1.

Earlier this month, it was rumored that Google is investing more than a billion dollars in a project to use satellites to get internet to remote areas. In addition, Google has Project Loon, in which balloons are used to provide wireless connections in areas where there is currently little or no internet. Google also acquired Titan Aerospace, which makes solar-powered drones that can bring the internet to remote areas.