Snap Acquires Drone Startup: Report

Snap Inc. paid less than $1 million dollars for a failing drone startup, according to a Friday afternoon report. Buzzfeed News reported that Snap acquired Ctrl Me Robotics Inc. as the startup, based in the same Southern California city as the Snapchat parent company, was winding down operations. Ctrl Me was founded to develop a system for capturing movie-quality aerial video, according to the report, and the founder and some technology is included in the small acquisition. Snap has released one hardware product, sunglasses called Spectacles that capture video for the company's mobile app. The consumer-drone industry has suffered of late amid dominance from Chinese drone manufacturer DJI. Snap had a large IPO in March, but has struggled since, including a huge drop after its first earnings report as a public company showed a $2.2 billion quarterly loss. Snap shares closed with a 3.2% decline at $21.22 Friday.