Google is looking, quite literally, at the stars after reports suggest the search giant is ready to grab satellite startup Skybox. And the price tag won't be cheap, with suggestions that Google could be willing to part ways with one billion dollars to bring in Skybox.
Google first began making advances at Skybox in April and reports point to advanced negotiations getting underway a few weeks ago. But with the company having already acquired Titan Aerospace - grabbing it away from rival Facebook at the last minute - it appears that Google is heading straight into space, and with satellites and drones now under their control, experts and observers are asking what comes next.
But Google is remaining hush on the prospects of Skybox coming under their umbrella and has not commented on the reports as they have surfaced. Talks have increased over the past month, reports are suggesting, and they could be in the final stages of a deal being reached.
A source has been making the media rounds suggesting that the deal has been agreed and it will total one billion.
With Google Maps and Google Earth becoming ever more popular in recent years, the idea of capturing even better imagery and mapping technology could be a major reason behind Google looking to pick up Skybox. Having satellite imaging capability would assist developers in pinpointing and designing even more innovative mapping techniques to assist the general public.
"A constellation of small imaging satellites, like what we already have in place today with RapidEye or what Skybox may have in the future, would give Google a very reliable, rich content source for imagery analytics and related applications," Scott Soenen, CTO at another satellite company, BlackBridge, told reporters.
It is unclear, however, where Skybox will fall in the Google family. Many expect the company to either remain independent in name and functionality, much as YouTube has done since Google acquired it a number of years ago - also at one billion dollars - or if the technology and expertise will move into an already existing Google team to continue their work.
Either way, the new acquisition would do wonders for Google's continued push to the outer reaches of current technological innovation. For now, at least, Google remains somewhat grounded on only one planet.
