Google Beats Facebook to Buy Drone Maker Titan Aerospace

The technology company announced Monday that it has acquired Titan Aerospace, a start-up founded in 2012 that makes high-altitude, solar-powered drones.

The purchase is part of the new push in Silicon Valley to find ways of delivering Internet service to underserved areas, particularly in the developing world.

"Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world," Google said. "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."

The companies didn't respond to requests for comment on the terms of the deal.

link.

Facebook had been rumored to be trying to buy Titan back in the beginning of March.

Advances in Mind-Machine Interfaces: Reading Images Directly From the Brain

FACEBOOK (!!!) to buy Drone Maker Titan Aerospace

Since we did the first story about the capabilities that Titan Aerospace offers — drones capable of flying for five years at 65,000 feet — we feel compelled to write about their reported purchase by Facebook.

That’s right: not SpaceX or Northrop Grumman or Orbital. Facebook. The story is being covered in the financial and tech press, with TechCrunch having broken the news. The start-up will reportedly be bought for $60 million (NOT billion) to help provide Internet access to Africa and other underserved locations.

TechCrunch says Titan “would start by building 11,000 of these unmanned aerial vehicles,” specifically the Solara 60 model.

link.