The Avanti Group the equities research house based in Tokyo, providing professional trading and investment research solutions to institutional and private investors across the globe have recently drawn their investor’s attention to recent developments in the internet media sector.

The reported negotiations are only in an early stage at this point and a resultant deal between Google Inc and Skybox Imaging Inc is far from certain at this point in time according to sources close to the talks between the two companies, It is unknown at this time how Google intends to use Skybox and its range of detailed satellite photos and analytics to improve their own mapping services including Google Earth.

The Mountain View, California based Google has been busily exploring new technologies both online and off that will help it expand into new markets as its competitors increasingly challenge its own well established services and offerings, such as search engines, mapping, telecommunications and online music sales, something that its main U.S rival Apple Inc dominates. Google Inc has conducted up to five separate and technologically diverse acquisitions so far this month, including holding preliminary talks with Twitch Interactive Inc a video service provider.

“Although no one at this stage is quite sure to what end Google would benefit from Skybox’s technology, the move even at this early stage shows that Google has already given serious thought to this matter. None of the company’s acquisitions this year have been made by chance, they all have had a very valid reason, even if at first that reason was not always apparent to outside observers,” said Martin Blanke Equity Research Specialist at The Avanti Group.

Skybox which designs high resolution imaging satellites to both obtain and deliver images to their customers with resolutions of less than a meter, is aimed at industries that include agriculture, mining and insurance and could be worth up to $1 billion according to industry observers, TechCrunch, who were also the first to report on talks between Skybox and Google.

“Google’s end game with Skybox is unclear, but what a lot of analysts would be well advised to do is to examine the satellite imaging providers direct competitors, especially some of their more recent involvements with those companies that the Mountain View based giant considers its own direct rivals, in this way a clearer picture begins to emerge regarding Google’s possibly motivation here,” concluded Martin Blanke Equity Research Specialist at The Avanti Group.

The Avanti Group is an equity research house providing research and analysis outsourcing solutions for institutional financial traders worldwide, founded in early 2003.