Industry News

Amazon's Acquisition of Kiva Systems' Robots Leaves a Precarious Situation

March 24, 2014

After its acquisition by Amazon in the spring of 2012, Kiva Systems' little orange robotic shelving movers seemed to disappear from the industrial marketplace

Mike Bacidore

When Kiva Systems' little organic robotic shelving movers were acquired by Amazon in 2012, the availability of the devices became scarce in the industrial marketplace, especially for competitors who began using the robots before the acquisition.

Kiva originally built 20,000 new robots for Amazon, and businesses did not want to fund their competitors' efforts by buying their merchandise from Amazon.

Most recently, Amazon demonstrated the Kiva Systems robots at the 2014 Modex Show in Atlanta and disclosed that they will be making the technology available to specific partners, which will seemingly open a door that has been long closed.

Read the full article here.

See the robots in action by watching the following video:

About the Author

Mike Bacidore | Editor in Chief

Mike Bacidore is chief editor of Control Design and has been an integral part of the Endeavor Business Media editorial team since 2007. Previously, he was editorial director at Hughes Communications and a portfolio manager of the human resources and labor law areas at Wolters Kluwer. Bacidore holds a BA from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management. He is an award-winning columnist, earning multiple regional and national awards from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. He may be reached at [email protected]