Verizon Buys Drone Operations Management Company

Verizon bought drone operations management company Skyward for an undisclosed sum, said the telco in a Thursday news release. "This acquisition is a natural progression of our core focus on operating in innovative, high-growth markets, leveraging our network, scale, fleet management, device management, data analytics and security enablement capabilities and services to simplify the drone industry and help support the adoption of IoT," said Mike Lanman, Verizon senior vice president-enterprise products and IoT. It said Skyward's technology will provide one platform to handle "mission planning, complex workflow, [Federal Aviation Administration] compliance support, supplying information about restricted airspace and pilot credentialing, drone registration and provisioning rate plans for drones on Verizon's network."