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Google parent company Alphabet is backing away from another one of its peripheral and far-out missions, this time satellite imagery. The company is selling its imaging unit, called Terra Bella and formerly known as Skybox, to startup Planet Labs for an undisclosed sum, the two companies announced today. Planet focuses on using satellite imagery to provide data for industries like ecological research, agriculture, and mapping. SkyBox did the same, and was acquired by Google back in 2014 for $500 million.
Alphabet and Google are stepping back from satellite imagery
As part of the deal, Planet will acquire Terra Bella’s collection of seven SkySat satellites and also enter into a data-purchasing agreement whereby Google will pay for high-resolution imagery to use for its products and services. Planet is a leader in the satellite imagery space, with plans to send up the most ever satellites in a single launch later this month — 88 in total aboard a rocket launching from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India. With the Terra Bella acquisition, Planet will also be taking on about 80 Alphabet employees, according to Bloomberg.
The sale of Terra Bella is just the latest “moonshot” wind down at Alphabet. The company, after splitting Google into its own division and separating out the X research lab in August 2015, has increasingly taken a more strict and cost-conscious approach to research and units that may not be profitable for quite some time, if ever. This is part of a greater plan by Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat, who has reshaped the company’s myriad and often fanciful interests in futuristic technology with a more fiscal focus. Under Porat’s leadership, Alphabet has put more pressure on the company’s drone, telecom, robotics, consumer hardware, and self-driving car divisions.
That’s led to some tension, with key figures like self-driving car engineer Chris Urmson, Nest CEO Tony Fadell, Access (formerly Google Fiber) chief Craig Barratt, and Project Wing head Dave Vox all leaving the company in the last year or so. Alphabet has also outright shut down or sold some of its once-promising divisions. Last month, the company closed its solar-powered drone project in favor of putting more resources toward its air balloon Wi-Fi initiative Loon and the Project Wing drone unit. In May 2016, Alphabet put up its high-profile robot builder Boston Dynamics for sale.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the price at which Alphabet sold Terra Bella to Planet. Terra Bella, formerly Skybox, was acquired by Google in 2014 for $500 million. The details of today’s deal were not in fact disclosed publicly.
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