
Planet to Acquire Terra Bella from Google - swatkat
https://www.planet.com/pulse/planet-to-acquire-terra-bella-from-google/
======
JumpCrisscross
Google's process for these divestments is controversial. I know credible
people who expressed a willingness to pay more than Planet, in cash, to
management. They were turned away in preference of management's buddies.

I don't imagine this will hurt anyone during this administration. But down the
road, these policies may bite out of those enacting them. Take care, with your
own firms and when you're given questionable instructions, to treat your
shareholders fairly.

~~~
sangnoir
> I know credible people who expressed a willingness to pay more than Planet,
> in cash, to management.

In this case, the the total value is the sale value + continued access to data
(including data from Planet's _other_ medium resolution satellites) after the
sale via the contract. How certain are you that the cash offered was more
valuable than the current deal?

FYI: I'm an outsider whose only source is the article

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zmanian
I'm surprised that Google decided that microsat imaging market was a
distraction. It seems very high potential and synergistic with Google's other
space based endeavors.

~~~
hkmurakami
Provided that they can still buy the data, they may decide that the
differentiator isn't the proprietary data but the data analysis they put on
top of it. In which case owning and acquiring the data is no longer crucial.

~~~
kozikow
Plain-old satellite imagery is starting to become a cost race to the ground.
Real sauce is in the analysis - for example look at Orbital Insight or
Descartes labs.

Satellite imagery companies try to differentiate by higher resolution or
alternative imagery formats like multi-spectral.

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meritt
Google acquired Skybox for $500M in 2014. Curious what changed so
significantly in 2.5 years that a half a billion investment was no longer
viable. Based on the terms of this deal, it appears they were only after the
imaging data itself. I'm guessing Skybox's VC demanded an exit instead of a
lucrative multi-year data contract?

~~~
madgar
Ruth Porat is the change you're looking for

~~~
justicezyx
I like the disciple.

But the change is real. Google has been gradually become more and more
conventional. That probably was what Larry wanted in the move of creating
Alphabet, after all.

~~~
Cheyana
Yup. From Financial Review:

"Before Apple’s Steve Jobs died in 2011, he told Google cofounder and CEO
Larry Page that his company was trying to do too much. As Page later told the
Financial Times, he replied, “If we just do the same things we did before and
don’t do something new, it seems like a crime to me." Yet Page also
acknowledged that Jobs was right in one sense: he could manage only so many
things before too many would get lost in the shuffle."

[http://www.afr.com/technology/how-steve-jobs-last-advice-
to-...](http://www.afr.com/technology/how-steve-jobs-last-advice-to-larry-
page-inspired-alphabet-20150812-k9zoe)

~~~
hueving
>Before Apple’s Steve Jobs died in 2011

This is such a strange statement to me. Is there really a chance the reader
will get confused and think that Steve spoke after he died?

~~~
rybosome
I think the value in such a comment is placing it within a timeline of the
person's life. It wouldn't make sense to relate a story from 1982 and mention
it relative to Jobs' death, but discussing an event that occurred months prior
seems appropriate. Imagine it in the same context as "prior to his second
tenure with Apple".

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drdeadringer
I worked for Skybox [Google] in 2015 as a contactor. A very good set of people
who, at the time, were still getting used to integrating into the Google
machine. I imagine that the past few years have been and will be a continuous
sea of change such as this.

~~~
phantom_package
Funny, so did I. Extremely talented team, and hands-down some of the nicest
people I've ever worked with. From what I've heard of Planet, it seems like a
solid cultural fit - excited to see what comes next.

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ChuckMcM
That is great news for the Terra Bella employees that Planet decides to
keep[1]. Anyone know where the rest are going? A friend of mine who was part
of the Motorola Mobility acquisition noted that employees got a big boost in
benefits/perks but their output and business had not changed. I wonder if that
impacted this deal or if Ruth just didn't feel it was worth it. Nobody thinks
twice about a press release that says "We decided to stop buying our imaging
data from Planet" but they freak out if you say "we just laid off the entire
Terra Bella team." So it gives them more flexibility to cut costs without the
PR hit[2].

[1] _" As part of this agreement, a number of Terra Bella employees will join
Planet to continue their great work within our combined organization."_

[2] Its cynical I know but given how important maps is to Google, and how
important satellite imagery is to maps, this is not an easy move to explain as
anything other than cutting out the cost of the employees.

~~~
maxerickson
Their maps imagery layer already shows the higher resolution data available
from DigitalGlobe.

I wonder if they just decided that they had been beat into the space
(DigitalGlobe has 5 satellites capturing higher resolution than Skybox 1 and
2. It also isn't obvious that the Skybox satellites can even cover the same
area; DigitalGlobe crows about their daily acquisition rate, Skybox doesn't
mention it).

~~~
sanguy
Google also operates a very large fleet of aircraft to get higher resolution
then what satellite can provide. Both in North America and Europe. DG is just
the fill in.

~~~
maxerickson
Do they? I thought they just used USDA/USGS/NAIP and other government imagery.

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puzzle
They do.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Douyfa7l8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6Douyfa7l8)

At least for disaster relief, in Asia, too:

[https://maps.googleblog.com/2011/03/new-imagery-of-japan-
aft...](https://maps.googleblog.com/2011/03/new-imagery-of-japan-after-
earthquake.html)

"Today, we’ve published imagery of the Sendai region at even higher
resolution, which we collected on Sunday and Monday."

Note the "we collected" and how it's called just imagery, instead of
"satellite imagery" as in the previous paragraph. A thread with operational
details:

[https://community.apan.org/hadr/japan_earthquake/f/f629b959-...](https://community.apan.org/hadr/japan_earthquake/f/f629b959-b4a7-4133-b0ed-7cad7778509c/53821/google-
offer-to-fly-candid-imagery-as-part-of-japan-relief-operations-similar-to-
haiti-3d-udop)

It's also available for resale:

[http://sendai.hmdc.harvard.edu/cga_website_files/PDF_misc/Go...](http://sendai.hmdc.harvard.edu/cga_website_files/PDF_misc/Google_Imagery_Overview_2014.pdf)

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uptown
Mapping tech has always fascinated me. Can anybody point me to resources to
learn more about mapping, GIS, and other subjects relevant to the tech used in
this industry? It's something I'd love to get involved with.

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forgotmypw
Pasting the text because the page is not friendly to JS-off browsing. There
are a few satellite images if you click through to the article.

\--

Planet Labs is thrilled to announce that we have entered into an agreement
with Google, wherein Planet will acquire the Terra Bella business including
the SkySat constellation of satellites, and Google upon closing, will enter
into a multi-year contract to purchase Earth-imaging data from Planet.

I can speak for everyone at Planet when I say that we’re incredibly excited
about this opportunity. We’ve long admired what the team at Terra Bella has
achieved and we think the SkySat constellation of 7 high resolution satellites
is highly complementary to Planet’s existing medium resolution 60-satellite
fleet. The former enable regular, rapidly updated snapshots of select areas of
the globe at sub-meter resolution; the latter regular, global coverage at 3-5
meter resolution. The two systems under one roof will be truly unique and will
enable valuable new capabilities.

Planet will distribute SkySat data through Planet’s suite of geospatial
offerings. Planet’s global medium-resolution imagery has proven to be of great
value in the commercial market, enabling us to exceed our revenue goals in
2016. With Terra Bella, Planet will diversify its available data and solutions
and be able to serve new customers and markets.

As part of this agreement, a number of Terra Bella employees will join Planet
to continue their great work within our combined organization. We’re honoured
and pleased to welcome Terra Bella to the Planet family and look forward to
working with the Google team.

“When we thought about a company that shares Terra Bella’s passion and
strengths in high frequency satellite imaging, Planet was a natural home,”
said Jen Fitzpatrick, VP of Product and Engineering, Google. “Terra Bella has
accomplished a lot in the past two years—including the design and launch of
five more satellites. We’re excited to see what’s ahead for Terra Bella, and
look forward to being a long-term customer.”

“From the start, Planet and Terra Bella have shared similar visions and
approached aerospace technology from a like-minded position, and while our on-
orbit assets and data are different, together we bring unique and valuable
capabilities to users,” said Terra Bella Co-Founder John Fenwick. “Planet and
Terra Bella together enables the continuation of our mission and makes for an
ever-stronger business.”

With this acquisition, rapid business growth, and the largest launches yet for
both Terra Bella and Planet scheduled for this year, this will no doubt be
Planet’s most impactful year yet!

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the
receipt of regulatory approvals in the US.

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simonsarris
Odd, but reminds me of when Google sold SketchUp (Acquired in 2006, sold in
2012).

Have there been many other Google acquisitions that turned into divestments?

~~~
dragonwriter
Motorola Mobility.

~~~
xapata
But they kept the patents.

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moretosee
\- what is the impact to Spacenow, Orbital Insight or Descartes labs? \- how
big is the market of geo image analysis? as some one mentioned, there isn't
too many customers beyond hedge funds/governments for these kind of data.

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elkos
I wonder does Planet got TerraBella's IP (source code and schematics) too?

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zump
Wonder what's going with Planet since their CTO left abruptly.

~~~
sanguy
They are growing beyond their original technology as they search for revenue.
The Dove's got them started but it's clear they need to move onto real
satellites to become meaningful as the Dove's are low resolution and low
accuracy; and pretty much just creating a space-junk problem for future
generations. This is why they bought BlackBridge and now TerraBella - to try
to get a reasonable constellation to get them competitive to DG.

~~~
zump
Well this just throws the whole CubeSat "business model" out the window. You
can't do much with them it seems.

~~~
darkwyng
I disagree, there are a lot of applications for cubesats. The problem is
physical optics limits the payload capability in such a small package; good
images require a good telescope with lenses and sufficient telescope length.
Accuracy should be a solvable problem, many small avionics packages with GPS,
star trackers, reaction wheels all integrated. Aren't they supposed to degrade
in like 5 years out of orbit?

~~~
Robotbeat
Not telescope length so much as diameter. The diffraction limit means that (to
zeroth order) your resolution is basically[1]:

altitude _wavelength /aperture = pixel size

Planet's cubesats are at ~500km and visible light is ~500nm, and cubesats are
at most 10cm per unit, so resolution is just:

5e5_5e-7/1e-1= 2.5 (all in meters).

There are some games you can play with super high contrast to improve on that,
but it's pretty close to a hard limit. So to improve, you need a larger
cubesat platform, like perhaps a 12-unit cubesat for up to 20cm aperture
(1.25m resolution) or even a 27-u cubesat for 30cm aperture, but at that
point, you're talking about a custom cubesat launcher (although the 12u one
isn't too bad), and you might as well just develop a different platform that
isn't constrained so much by the cubesat standard.

Which makes the Terra Bella merger make sense.

The optimum size of a cheap, disposable (6-12 month lifespan until deorbit due
to the extremely low altitude) mass constellation of tiny Earth observation
satellites is probably a little bit larger than the cubesat platform. And if
you're launching them often enough (and Planet is, since they make up a huge
proportion of the total number of cubesats ever launched... I think the
majority?), you can afford to develop your own standard.

ISS's ability to launch cubesats is something that's fairly easy to upgrade
and has been upgraded in the past. And other launchers for larger satellites
from ISS have been used. And, of course, the same thing applies to secondaries
on other rockets or even dedicated launches.

(4kg/satellite)*(50 satellites) is only 200kg. You could increase that to 10kg
per satellite for a larger platform and you're still at just half a ton, which
is pretty small for a secondary payload still, with the potential for sub-
meter resolution, so I definitely see an upgrade beyond the 3U cubesat in
Planet's future.

[1] There's a factor of 1.22 in there for circular apertures for the usual
definition of resolving power (i.e. overlapping of the minimum of the Airy's
disc of one point source with the maximum of the other... this being a case
where you're trying to resolve two bright sources from each other). But again,
this is for bright sources and there's assumptions about contrast ratio when
discussing resolving power, so generally speaking, I just use "1" instead of
"1.22", since "1" is a little more conservative and relevant to more than just
two bright sources next to each other with a dark background.

