Google announced the acquisition of New Mexico-based Titan Aerospace, the maker of solar-powered drones that are intended to fly nonstop for about 5 years.
Titan Aerospace with roughly 20 employees would continue to operate in New Mexico with Vern Raburn, as the Chief Executive. Google is yet to disclose the financial details of the deal.
“Atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation,” Google said in an emailed statement confirming the Titan acquisition, notes Reuters.
“We’re thrilled to announce that Titan Aerospace is joining Google,” read the announcement on Titan Aerospace’s website. “We couldn’t be more excited to learn from and work with our new colleagues as we continue our research, testing and design work as part of the Google family.”
“Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement to PCMag.com.
“It’s still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation. It’s why we’re so excited to welcome Titan Aerospace to the Google family.”
The deals comes weeks after CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook’s Connectivity Lab, which will work on the Internet.org project, and hired several key staff members from UK drone maker Ascenta. Earlier this year, Facebook was reportedly in talks to acquire Titan Aerospace for an estimated sum of around $60 million.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Titan Aerospace will be working closely with Google’s Project Loon, the balloon-based remote Internet delivery project. Google’s Loon Ibis-167 has recently set a new record of finishing its first lap in just 22 days against the estimated 33 days. However, it’s not just about the Project Loon as Titan drones can also help Google with high-quality images in real-time for the Maps initiatives.
