14 DAY TRIAL // Rumors that Alphabet was looking to sell Terra Bella, formerly known as Skybox, are coming true. The satellite imagery company will be moving over to startup Planet in exchange for a rumored $500 million.
“Planet Labs is thrilled to announce that we have entered into an agreement with Google, wherein Planet will acquire the Terra Bella business including the SkySat constellation of satellites, and Google upon closing, will enter into a multi-year contract to purchase Earth-imaging data from Planet,” the two companies state in their announcement.
The folks over at Terra Bella comment that their seven high-resolution satellites should fit right in with the fleet of 60 satellites of medium resolution in Planet’s arsenal. While the former will enable regular and rapidly updated snapshots at sub-meter resolution, the latter will bring regular, global coverage at 3-5 meter resolution.
Getting back what it paid
Google acquired SkyBox back in 2014 and is now selling it for pretty much the same price. Of course, one important part of the deal is the fact that Google will continue to get its data for Google Earth from the company, which scores an important partner for the startup.
“When we thought about a company that shares Terra Bella’s passion and strengths in high-frequency satellite imaging, Planet was a natural home. Terra Bella has accomplished a lot in the past two years - including the design and launch of five more satellites. We’re excited to see what’s ahead for Terra Bella, and look forward to being a long-term customer,” said Jen Fitzpatrick, VP of Product and Engineering, Google.
This seems to be just another one of Google’s moonshots that’s winding down some. Even though Alphabet has said that some of the projects are making some money nowadays, they’re far from being profitable. It seems, however, that it’s important for the company to keep its fingers in many jars, so it’s quite unlikely that things will change much when it comes to Alphabet’s tendency to buy startups that don’t necessarily make sense for its core business.