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United Kingdom,United States : GOOGLE acquires drone maker TITAN AEROSPACE [TendersInfo (India)](TendersInfo (India) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Titan Aerospace is being courted by Facebook, and then passed over the Facebook bought Ascenta. Now Google bought Titan. Google is into the high-altitude drone business with its purchase of Titan Aerospace in a move that is linked to Google's Project Loon efforts, which uses high-altitude balloons to build a high-speed Internet network. The Titan Aerospace acquisition by Google is being made as the company continues to assemble more aerial technology to collect images and get more of the world's population online. The price paid was not announced. The deal is confirmed by a Google spokesperson, who said that Titan Aerospace and Google shares a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world. It's still early days, but atmospheric satellites could bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation. Facebook been interested in buying Titan but passed on the company, and instead acquired Ascenta in March for $20 million. Titan has 20 employees that will remain in New Mexico. Titan's current CEO, Vern Raburn, will also remain at the company. Google said that the Titan team will work with Google's Project Loon, which is building large, high-altitude balloons that send Internet signals to areas that are currently not online. Titan may also work with Makani, another early-stage Google project that is developing an airborne wind turbine that hopes to generate energy more efficiently. The drone will collect real-time, high-resolution images of the earth, carry other atmospheric sensors and support voice and data services. This type of technology could also help other Google businesses, including its Maps division. Facebook s interest in Titan first surfaced in early March, as Facebook was interested in using the company's high-altitude drones to blanket parts of the world without Internet access, beginning with Africa. Titan would have to build about 11,000 of the unmanned aerial vehicles for the Facebook plans. The high-altitude internet networks have been on Google's radar since the company launched its experiment in 2013. Project Loon uses a series of high-altitude balloons to build a high-speed internet network that could use to bring affordable Internet service to far-flung locations around the world for the first time. The experiment is being touted as a high-tech way to create Internet connections for two-thirds of the people in the world who don't have Internet access. (c) 2014 Euclid Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Provided by Syndigate.info, an Albawaba.com company |