Google Hands SoftBank Patents From Failed Balloon Moonshot

Google parent Alphabet Inc., which earlier this year shut down its moonshot project to beam internet service from high-altitude balloons, is passing the baton to Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Corp.

Alphabet has transfered about 200 patents from its Loon project to the telecoms unit of SoftBank Group Corp., the Japanese company said in a statement on Thursday. SoftBank is developing its own wireless technology that uses fixed-wing autonomous aircraft as a flying base station.

A Google Project Loon balloon.

Source: picture alliance/Getty Images

Google launched Loon in 2013 as an ambitious effort to blanket the globe with internet connectivity using giant balloons drifting on currents high ...