GOOGL - Alphabet shuts down Loon internet balloon company

Alphabet ([[GOOG]], [[GOOGL]]) is pulling the pin on Project Loon, a decade old venture that planned to beam internet to Earth via giant balloons. While it struggled to get off the ground, the experimental business saw some successes over the years, like helping restore cell service in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria and getting tens of thousands of Peruvians back online after serious flooding in 2017. Loon even launched a pilot service in Kenya last summer, sending 4G LTE signals down to an area of 30,000 square miles.What happened? The price tag was too high. The project "was just too expensive for everyday people" and Loon couldn't "get costs low enough to build a long-term, sustainable business."Bigger picture: Loon was born out of X - Alphabet's moonshot factory for experimental projects - but was spun out into a separate company in July 2018. Experimental projects from X are accounted for

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Alphabet shuts down Loon internet balloon company