If 2018 started off on a sad note with the shutdown of Mapzen, it seems to be coming to an end with the acquisition of another well-known company. Planet, the San Francisco based Earth Observation company has entered into an agreement to acquire Boundless for an undisclosed sum. This is the second company that Planet has acquired since they were founded in 2010, the other company being Terra Bella (from Google).

What is interesting about this acquisition is that Planet announced that they have acquired Boundless to further strengthen their support of U.S. government business. If you recall, Boundless won a $36 million contract with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) earlier last year.

Planet has announced that all 90+ employees of Boundless will be retained and will be part of their new subsidiary, Planet Federal. Planet Federal will focus on our growing U.S. government business representing Planet’s commercial products for U.S. government requirements.

Is this Planet’s first steps towards becoming a complete geospatial intelligence provider? They have the data, now they have the analytical capabilities as well. It is going to be interesting to see how Planet Federal develops over the course of time.