Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#1

Post by LiveTheDream » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 8:55 PM UTC

Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million
zdnet.com

Re: Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#2

Post by candre717 » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 9:32 PM UTC

Kiva is a great company. They have been innovating since day 1, tapping into various industries. Last year, they put their robots on the floors of Boston Scientific's fulfillment center - a first for them in the highly-sensitive, highly-regulated medical arena. And, to be bought in CASH... I hope employees and the founding team made out well.

Re: Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#3

Post by sriramk » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 9:35 PM UTC

candre717 wrote: post #2

Kiva is a great company. They have been innovating since day 1, tapping into various industries. Last year, they put their robots on the floors of Boston Scientific's fulfillment center - a first for them in the highly-sensitive, highly-regulated medical arena. And, to be bought in CASH... I hope employees and the founding team made out well.

Also a great exit for Bain Capital.

Re: Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#4

Post by portman » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 9:41 PM UTC

sriramk wrote: post #3

candre717 wrote: post #2

Kiva is a great company. They have been innovating since day 1, tapping into various industries. Last year, they put their robots on the floors of Boston Scientific's fulfillment center - a first for them in the highly-sensitive, highly-regulated medical arena. And, to be bought in CASH... I hope employees and the founding team made out well.

Also a great exit for Bain Capital.

Bain Capital Ventures. Venture Capital, not Private Equity.

Re: Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#5

Post by iandanforth » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 9:45 PM UTC

It's a great time to start a robotics company and I hope this exit will further accelerate the pace of new companies being created! Kiva is also a great example of nailing a single high-value problem even if it's not the sexiest challenge.

Re: Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#6

Post by samsol » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 9:50 PM UTC

One interesting question is what will happen to the current clients of Kiva (of which many are competing with Amazon in ecommerce market) newegg. etc ??

Re: Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#7

Post by tpsreport » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 10:03 PM UTC

On both a very unrelated and totally related note, one of the co-founders of Kiva, Rafaello D'Andrea, dominated robo-soccer for five years.

Re: Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#8

Post by mc32 » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 10:12 PM UTC

samsol wrote: post #6

One interesting question is what will happen to the current clients of Kiva (of which many are competing with Amazon in ecommerce market) newegg. etc ??

Good question. I hope they keep innovating and serving all clients rather than it being a competitive advantage move for Amazon itself as an in-house robotics developer.

Re: Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#9

Post by siong1987 » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 10:21 PM UTC

samsol wrote: post #6

One interesting question is what will happen to the current clients of Kiva (of which many are competing with Amazon in ecommerce market) newegg. etc ??

I think they will be getting the same service from Kiva.

Netflix is one of the biggest user of EWS, yet, Amazon is pushing hard on their streaming service too.

Re: Amazon acquiring Kiva Systems for $775 million

#10

Post by hegga » Mon, Mar 19, 2012, 10:32 PM UTC

I would have gone for this Norwegian system: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iyVDMp2bL9c