Facebook in Talks to Acquire Drone Company?

Titan

Facebook is in talks to acquire drone manufacturer Titan Aerospace, according to TechCrunch. for a reported $60m (£36m).

Its a bit of a left-field move – so where could it possibly fit into Facebooks strategy?

Well, if youre imagining drones flying overhead, snapping pics and posting them to your Facebook wall, dont fear. It seems that Titan would be part of Internet.org, the Zuckerberg-founded initiative to bring internet access to emerging markets.

The solar-powered drones, which fly at near-orbital altitudes, offer a cheaper alternative to communications satellites. In effect, it seems that theyd serve a similar purpose to Googles Project Loon – which was singled out by Zuckerberg as an unnecessary innovation during his MWC keynote.

In the same speech, though, Zuckerberg also claimed that “after buying a company for $16bn, you’re probably done for a while” – referring, of course, to last months WhatsApp acquisition. It seems thats not quite accurate, though its worth noting that acquisition cost over 250x the touted price for Titan.