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posted by Fnord666 on Saturday June 10 2017, @11:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the ethanol-fueled-kaiju-killers dept.

Over a year after signalling its intentions to dump the robotics demonstration company Boston Dynamics, Alphabet/Google has finally found a buyer: SoftBank. SoftBank acquired ARM Holdings for around $32 billion in 2016. Google also offloaded another robotics company, Schaft:

Google's ambitions for Boston Dynamics were never really clear. Before being acquired, the robotics company was mostly funded by DARPA—the US military's research division—with the express purpose of creating militarised robots. Within a year of being picked up, though, Google announced that it would no longer pursue any DARPA contracts, presumably to focus on possible commercial uses for the bots. No commercial robots ever emerged.

SoftBank, however, has had success with commercialising robots—specifically the small humanoid robot Pepper.

Also at The Verge, The Guardian, TNW, CNN, CNBC, and TechCrunch.

Previously: Pentagon Scientists Show Off Robot And Prosthetics
Google's Noisy "BigDog" Robot Fails to Impress U.S. Marine Corps
Google's Latest Boston Dynamics Robot Takes a Stand
Boston Dynamics Produces a Wheeled Terror as Google Watches Nervously


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  • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 11 2017, @06:09AM (2 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Sunday June 11 2017, @06:09AM (#523712) Journal

    As long as the dividends are good or share price goes up it should be okay as a investment?

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday June 11 2017, @10:00AM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 11 2017, @10:00AM (#523746) Journal
    "As long as". Important adverse information has been successfully denied to investors. That indicates to me that investors would not be notified in advance, if Google hits conditions where it can't pay dividends and/or causes stock prices to drop.
    • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday June 11 2017, @01:32PM

      by kaszz (4211) on Sunday June 11 2017, @01:32PM (#523799) Journal

      It's like China? you don't know what is going on until it's a fact.. too late?