Archer Aviation announced that it now owns its former rival Wisk Aero. Under the terms of the deal, Boeing agreed to sell Wisk Aero and two other subsidiaries to Archer in exchange for a 16.5% stake in the company. The other subsidiaries are SkyGrid, an air traffic management software company, and Insitu, a drone manufacturer.
Wisk had sued Archer in 2021 over allegations of "flagrant theft" of confidential information and intellectual property. The case dragged on for two years before the companies reached an unusual settlement that not only ended the lawsuit and Archer's countersuit against Wisk for $1 billion in damages, but also resulted in a new collaboration.
Wisk had a winding path. It began as Kitty Hawk, an electric aviation startup led by Sebastian Thrun, co-founder of Alphabet's X experimental projects factory, and backed by Larry Page, co-founder of Google. Kitty Hawk shut down in September 2022, but its Cora programme, which had been spun off into a joint venture with Boeing, continued. That joint venture was renamed Wisk Aero.
Joby Aviation made a more conventional deal this week. The company acquired Resonant Sciences for $500 million, marking its entry into the defence sector. Resonant Sciences, which manufactures radiofrequency systems and sensors, will become a defence-focused business under Joby, called Joby Defense. Joby has been slowly expanding into the defence sector over recent years, even as it has pursued its original mission of certifying and manufacturing electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft for use as urban air taxis.