metashell

Hyundai Reportedly In Talks To Buy Softbank-Owned Boston Dynamics (bloomberg.com) 15

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday November 11, 2020 @08:00AM from the robots-destined-for-the-factories dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch:
SoftBank Group Corp. is in talks to sell robot maker Boston Dynamics
to Hyundai, people familiar with the matter said. Proposed terms of
the deal would give the South Korean automaker control of the robotics
company in a transaction valued at as much as $1 billion, said one of
the people, all of whom asked not to be identified because the
discussions are private. The terms have yet to be finalized, and the
deal could fall apart, said the people.

A sale of Boston Dynamics would mark another twist in the trajectory
of a company that spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in the early 1990s and operated independently until Google bought it in
2013. It was sold again in 2017, that time to SoftBank. At times, Boston
Dynamics has functioned more like a research organization than a business,
churning out machines that are technologically advanced and whimsical
but unprofitable. That includes Spot, a maneuverable dog-like robot. Video
s of its creations regularly rack up millions of views on YouTube; however,
the company has said it is not currently generating profits. By contrast,
Hyundai makes highly practical industrial robots intended for factory use.


Used to be owned by Google.

Terminator videos notwithstanding.