Kiva Systems
Assembly Line
Amazon Acquires Kiva Systems for $775 Million
Amazon announced that it is acquiring Kiva Systems, a North Reading, Mass.-based company that invented a revolutionary way of managing vast warehouses by using fleets of mobile robots to sort, organize, and transport inventory. Amazon agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Kiva for approximately US $775 million in cash. The companies expect to close the acquisition in the second quarter of 2012.
And what does Kiva do that got Amazon so interested? Basically, Kiva has reinvented the centuries-old warehouse business, transforming distribution centers – which previously relied on slow-moving humans to walk around picking and packing goods – into a buzzing hive of superefficient, tireless robotic workers.