Again! Softbank Announces Acquisition of Google's Two Robotics Companies
[Global Technology Reporter Wang Huan] According to “Nihon Keizai Shimbun†reported on June 9, Softbank Group announced on June 9 that it will acquire two startup companies engaged in robot development from Google’s holding company Alphabet. Softbank is expanding the “pepper†business of humanoid robots. Sun Yat-sen, president of Softbank, positioned the intelligent robot as a key area for the future. Some analysts believe that the merger will accelerate the development of new robots through the above two mergers and acquisitions.
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The company will acquire Boston Dynamics and start-up company SCHAFT from the University of Tokyo. The purchase amount was not disclosed. Toyota also showed interest in the two companies. In 2016, it had negotiations with Google for acquisitions, but Softbank won the competition.
Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992. Supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the US Department of Defense, it has been promoting the development of bipedal walking robots. It was acquired by Google in 2013, but it is opposed to the direction of development. Google seeks to sell it.
In addition, SCHAFT is also developing bipedal walking robots that have attracted attention at the DARPA-sponsored disaster rescue robot conference.
Softbank acquired Aldebaran Robotics in France in 2012 and used its technology to commercialize the pepper in 2015. During the development phase of pepper, Softbank had proposed cooperation with Honda to develop "ASIMO" to obtain bipedal walking technology, but the negotiations had no effect.
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