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Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

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Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#91

Post by chickenmonkey »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42
eric4smith wrote: post #24

These are one of the few times I can say that I don't care if Boston Dynamics are making money as yet. Boston Dynamics are one of the few real serious players in the robotics space worldwide doing deep R&D. Hyundai are basically paying for the BD Labs research. And they are well positioned to reap the products and techniques from the lab with their own manufacturing and engineering prowess and experience over the nex…

Great for Hyundai. Not such a good ROI for the taxpayers who kept BD afloat with decades of DARPA funding.

I think their investment in DARPA has a positive externality for society. If we account for this externality, perhaps taxpayers enjoy a positive ROI?

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#93

Post by Ensorceled »

tomhoward wrote: post #88
JohnWhigham wrote: post #78

What's the difference between a "controlling stake" and just owning the company?

A controlling stake means you own enough shares to have full voting control (i.e., you control the board votes, can appoint the executives and set the company direction) without having to pay for 100% of the shares. There are a few reasons to only acquire a controlling stake rather than 100% of the shares; you might want to preserve capital for other uses, or leave some shares to be traded on public markets so the st…

Or to leave key executives and tech leaders with some shares.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#94

Post by orliesaurus »

BD was once under Google/Alphabet's control - then they let them go, what does that mean? Was their robotics efforts not useful to Google's own research branch? Did acquihired the talent and then resold what was left to SoftBank? I have no clue...then SoftBank sold it again.. What I know is surely BD must have gone through a lot of turmoil (acquisitions) for such a small company (300ish employees?) since its inception!

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#95

Post by thebiss »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42
eric4smith wrote: post #24

These are one of the few times I can say that I don't care if Boston Dynamics are making money as yet. Boston Dynamics are one of the few real serious players in the robotics space worldwide doing deep R&D. Hyundai are basically paying for the BD Labs research. And they are well positioned to reap the products and techniques from the lab with their own manufacturing and engineering prowess and experience over the nex…

Great for Hyundai. Not such a good ROI for the taxpayers who kept BD afloat with decades of DARPA funding.

I don't know where to even look for this, but it would be interesting to see if the DARPA investment bought them a perpetual, irrevocable license to technologies they funded.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#96

Post by fny »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42
eric4smith wrote: post #24

These are one of the few times I can say that I don't care if Boston Dynamics are making money as yet. Boston Dynamics are one of the few real serious players in the robotics space worldwide doing deep R&D. Hyundai are basically paying for the BD Labs research. And they are well positioned to reap the products and techniques from the lab with their own manufacturing and engineering prowess and experience over the nex…

Great for Hyundai. Not such a good ROI for the taxpayers who kept BD afloat with decades of DARPA funding.

I think people are missing the point of this comment. The US invested heavily in BD, and now BD is being incorporated into a South Korean company rather than a US company.

I presume this is mostly because US manufacturing industry is relatively dead so capex for potential automation gains don't make sense for US firms.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#97

Post by TameAntelope »

nr2x wrote: post #67

Seems like they’d be a good fit for Disney, making theme park attractions.

I'd be a little sad if this technology only ended up being useful as a toy, but then again the biggest disruptors are at one point thought of as toys, so maybe that's about where we are in the process?

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#98

Post by echelon »

fny wrote: post #96
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great for Hyundai. Not such a good ROI for the taxpayers who kept BD afloat with decades of DARPA funding.

I think people are missing the point of this comment. The US invested heavily in BD, and now BD is being incorporated into a South Korean company rather than a US company. I presume this is mostly because US manufacturing industry is relatively dead so capex for potential automation gains don't make sense for US firms.

> US manufacturing industry is relatively dead

Here's where we need to be spending our tax money. We should be buying overseas firms and onshoring manufacture.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#99

Post by echelon »

tooltalk wrote: post #56
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great for Hyundai. Not such a good ROI for the taxpayers who kept BD afloat with decades of DARPA funding.

It's just too bad that the DARPA couldn't flip it like Softbank did in just a few years.

They first sold it to a US company without a vision (Google).

If Google can't figure out how to get a messaging app right, there's no way they can make sense of this purchase.

Re: Hyundai acquires controlling stake in Boston Dynamics for $880M

#100

Post by nine_k »

eric4smith wrote: post #24

These are one of the few times I can say that I don't care if Boston Dynamics are making money as yet. Boston Dynamics are one of the few real serious players in the robotics space worldwide doing deep R&D. Hyundai are basically paying for the BD Labs research. And they are well positioned to reap the products and techniques from the lab with their own manufacturing and engineering prowess and experience over the nex…

The key competence of BD is locomotion on legs. There are plenty of other companies that make stationary industrial robots, and a few who make wheeled robots.

But there are still a number of areas where wheeled robots are at a disadvantage: inspection of complex industrial installations (like complex pipework and other hard-to-reach areas), firefighting and rescue operations, well, even delivery in places with steps and stairways.

Korea is more technophilic than USA, and Hyundai is well-connected. They may find a more ready market for such products.

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