Google parent company Alphabet is saying goodbye to one more of its experimental long-term bets – this time it’s Loon, the giant balloons the company had hoped to send the Internet to the world’s countryside.
“While we have found some willing partners along the way, we have not found a way to keep costs low enough to build a long-term sustainable business,” Loon CEO Alastair Westgarth said in a blog post on Thursday. . “Developing radical new technology is inherently risky, but that doesn’t make it any easier to share this news.
The cancellation comes after the company shut down another experimental company called Makani, which provided wind power with giant kites, in 2020. Alphabet’s “Other Bets”, differs from Google, which provides almost all of Alphabet’s revenues and profits.
In its third-quarter earnings report, Alphabet said Other Bets generated $ 178 million in revenue, compared to $ 155 million a year ago. Meanwhile, the companies posted an operating loss of $ 1.10 billion, compared to $ 941 million a year ago. Google, on the other hand, made $ 12.6 billion in business revenue on $ 46 billion in revenue.
Loon recently had financial difficulties, according to a report by The Information in November. That report noted that Loon executives’ main goal for 2020 was to secure the second round of external investment.
“The arc of innovation is long and unpredictable,” Westgarth continued in his farewell post. While this is not the outcome I expected for Loon when I joined four years ago, I continue to be immensely proud of the accomplishments of the entire Loon team and hope our efforts will live on in ways that we cannot yet imagine introduce. . “
In a separate blog post, Astro Teller, CEO of X and Chairman of the Board of Loon, said that Loon would pledge $ 10 million “to support nonprofits and businesses focused on connectivity, the Internet, entrepreneurship and education in Kenya.”
“Unfortunately, despite the team’s breakthrough technical achievements over the past 9 years, the road to commercial viability has turned out to be much longer and more risky than hoped for,” added Teller.
Nominations are open for 2021 CNBC disruptor 50, a list of private start-ups using breakthrough technology to become the next generation of large public companies. To send until Friday, Feb. 12 at 3 p.m. EST.