On Monday, Google bought Titan Aerospace, the drone-maker whose technology is being sought after for bringing Internet connectivity to remote parts of the world.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Google acquired the drone maker after talks between Titan Aerospace and Facebook failed. Google reportedly promised Titan it could outmatch any price Facebook offered. It is not known at this stage what Google offered Titan.
"Facebook had been in talks to buy Titan earlier this year, but Google offered to top any Facebook offer, according to a person familiar with the matter. Facebook later agreed to pay $20 million for Ascenta, a U.K.-based aerospace company that also has been working on solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicles," according to the WSJ.
According to USA Today, Facebook was ready to purchase Titan for $60 million. Post acquisition, Titan's team of 20 employees will join Google's Project Loon that originally conceived using balloons to deliver connectivity but later veered around to using solar powered drones.
According to WSJ,Titan is working on two dragonfly-shaped, solar-powered drones, the smaller of which has a 164 foot wingspan.
"Titan claims that its drones can help deliver data at speeds of up to one gigabit a second using special communications equipment," WSJ reported adding that the company hopes to begin commercial operations in 2015.
According to The Register, both Google and Titan are happy about the acquisition. A Google spokesperson stated, "Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world. It's why we're so excited to welcome Titan Aerospace to the Google family."
Titan updated its website to confirm it was acquired by Google. " It's still early days for the technology we're developing, and there are a lot of ways that we think we could help people, whether it's providing internet connections in remote areas or helping monitor environmental damage like oil spills and deforestation," it said.
