Amazon Acquires Kiva Systems
Amazon acquired Kiva Systems, the maker of robots that carry shelving to warehouse workers, in a deal announced in March 2012 for about $775 million in cash.
What happened and why it matters
This deal made mobile robots a mainstream fulfillment technology. Kiva's robots drive under shelving pods and bring them to a worker at a fixed station, a goods-to-person method that removes most walking from picking. After buying Kiva, Amazon kept the robots for its own warehouses, renamed the unit Amazon Robotics, and stopped selling the system to other companies. That gap drew a wave of new robot makers into the market, which is why 3PLs and brands can now buy or rent warehouse robots from many vendors.
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Related events
Sources
- Amazon.com to acquire Kiva Systems, Inc. press.aboutamazon.com
- Amazon buys robot maker Kiva for $775m bostonglobe.com