Why is Google selling off its satellite fleet?

February 5, 2017 --Google's parent company, Alphabet, may have sky-high ambitions, but for now, it looks like they'll be capped at around 60,000 feet. With the sale of recently acquired satellite imaging company Terra Bella, Alphabet trades direct control over its own fleet of satellites – and all the hassles that can bring – for rights to purchase pictures for Google Earth from a third party. This reorganization is the latest in a series of moves focusing on balancing the company's eclectic interests with investors' desire for profits. In 2014, Google, as the company was still called at the time, purchased Terra Bella and its constellation of seven high-resolution satellites for for $500 million. Now, competitor Planet Labs Inc. will purchase Terra Bella for an undisclosed sum, it announced on Friday in a press release. The Terra Bella satellites can provide Google Earth with crisp images resolving features smaller than three feet across, which Planet Labs says is more than 3.5 times the sharpness of their current fleet composed of 60 mid-resolution satellites.