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Schaft and Boston Dynamics will be passing on into the hands of Softbank.
In an announcement released on June 09, Softbank revealed that it would be acquiring Boston Dynamics, the Big Dog developer company. As part of the sales agreement, Softbank will also be buying Shaft, a somewhat more secretive robotics firm.
Schaft and Boston Dynamics Will Be Passing On To New Hands
Presently, both these two robotics companies are still part of the Alphabet group. They were acquired by the corporation, at the time still going just by Google, back in 2013.
Schaft’s acquisition was part of group purchase including six other acquisitions besides it. Similar to its purchase, Alphabet stated that it would not be disclosing the term of the sales deal. No information will be offered regarding the sale of Boston Dynamics either.
Both this and Schaft are players in the robotics market, but their presence in the area has been somewhat different. While Boston Dynamics’s creations have been raising surprise and even fear in some, Schaft was rather a quiet presence.
Boston Dynamics presented quite many creations and talked about its advances in animal-like robotics. One of its most famous robots is the “Big Dog”, and the more recently announced “Handle”, which can both walk and roll away.
Rumors had been flying around for quite some time that Alphabet was looking to sell these two robotics companies. Various names were vehiculated as being interested buyers, one of them being Toyota.
Both Softbank and Boston Dynamics released statements after the purchase was revealed.
“We at Boston Dynamics are excited to be part of SoftBank’s bold vision and its position creating the next technology revolution, and we share SoftBank’s belief that advances in technology should be for the benefit of humanity,” stated Marc Raibert.
He is the founder and CEO of Boston Dynamics. Raibert then continued by adding that the two companies will be looking to keep ‘pushing the boundaries’ of advanced robots. They will also be looking to develop them with a useful application in this “more connected” and “smarter” world.
The acquisition of the two robotics companies is still subjected to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. It still remains to be seen if further details about the transaction will be revealed.
Image Source: Vimeo
