When not in the news for controversial remarks about poor countries or possible competition from Zuckerberg-owned enterprises, Snapchat-founder Evan Spiegel has been acquiring drones. You heard that right!
Snapchat has acquired Ctrl Me Robotics, a Venice-Beach based drone manufacturer. The deal, billed at around $1mn, was “something of an acquire” (Buzzfeed). Ctrl me Robotics founder Simon Saito joined snap, along with reassigning company assets and equipment.
The acquisition was made public through Instagram, wherein the following post was put up
Snapchat’s parent company Snap has been building towards an IPO for a while, officially opening stock trade under SNAP on March 2, 2017. When financials were made public, in anticipation of the IPO, it was revealed that Snap has also acquired Looksery – a selfie animation app, Vurb – a mobile search company and Bitstrips – the Bitmoji creators.
This acquisition fits in with Snapchat’s services and acquisitions. As a visual data based social media app, Snapchat has always featured fun ways to use the camera, Spiegel had stressed that it is a camera company.
Snap has also released Spectacles, a limited range of sunglasses with an inbuilt camera and acquired the geofilter patent from Mobli. Drones are the fastest emerging means of visual media, they manipulate the camera and data acquired in innovative ways. We looking forward to the new features and products Snap has to offer, especially with this new acquisition under its belt.
