Google is reportedly close to acquiring a satellite startup called Skybox

Google is currently in advanced negotiations to purchase satellite startup Skybox Imaging, reports TechCrunch. Skybox Imaging uses satellites to record highly detailed images and videos of landscapes, and provides analytics services to businesses. If the acquisition news is true, this would be the second aerospace-related company Google has scooped up this year, with the first being drone-maker startup Titan Aerospace. Google is apparently ready to spend upwards of $1 billion to acquire Skybox, according to TechCrunch’s sources.

Google made a play for the skies in April when it swept in and acquired Titan Aerospace amid reports that the drone maker was being pursued by Facebook. But Google’s interest in hardware companies that provide primary sources of data is not ending there. Google is closing in on a deal for Skybox Imaging, a satellite company that specialises in recording very detailed landscape pictures and video, TechCrunch has heard from three different sources. Google’s interest in Skybox, first reported in April by The Information, had already reached an advanced stage several weeks ago, with the two meeting in at least three rounds of acquisition talks, one source tells us. This was after people in the satellite industry started to hear rumors that Google was eyeing up Skybox, as well as another startup working in a similar area of satellite imaging, Planet Labs.