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Google is selling its robot company to Toyota

Google is selling Boston Dynamics, the robotics startup it bought in 2013, to Toyota, reports Tech Insider.

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A source says that the "ink is nearly dry" on the deal, but didn't disclose the price.

The robotics division has been a source of tension within the company since Andy Rubin, the exec who led it, left in 2014.

Rubin, who also founded Android and led Google's smartphone business for many years, drove the purchase of Boston Dynamics and brought in a bunch of other robotics companies as well for a new division known internally as Replicant.

Boston Dynamics
Boston Dynamics

But after Rubin left, the division never found a permanent leader to replace him and struggled to fulfill his ambitious vision of creating the first wave of consumer robotics products.

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Bloomberg previously reported that Google was working on the sale and had floated Toyota and Amazon as possible buyers. Other members of the robotics division were folded into Alphabet's experimental hardware lab, X.

Boston Dynamics was known for releasing some crazy videos of humanoid and animal-like robots.

Read the full report from Tech Insider here >>

On February 28, Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, joined 31 other media groups and filed a $2.3 billion suit against Google in Dutch court, alleging losses suffered due to the company's advertising practices.

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