Amazon Buying Robotic Inventory Company Kiva Systems

Amazon.com Inc. is buying Kiva Systems, for $775 million, Amazon announced after the stock market closed Monday.

Kiva produces mobile robot material handling systems that are used by online retailers to speed up their order fulfillment process. The company has counted more than 10 percent of the top 100 online retailers as customers in the past.

The acquisition, which has been approved by Kiva's stockholders, is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012, Amazon added in a statement.

“Amazon has long used automation in its fulfillment centers, and Kiva’s technology is another way to improve productivity by bringing the products directly to employees to pick, pack and stow,” Dave Clark, vice president for global customer fulfillment at Amazon, said in a prepared statement.

Kiva employed 205 people as of last May, CEO Mick Mountz said at the time.

Mountz founded the company in 2003 in Silicon Valley, but relocated the company to Massachusetts the next year.

In a statement Monday, Mountz said he is "delighted that Amazon is supporting our growth so that we can provide even more valuable solutions in the coming years."

Kiva will remain headquartered in North Reading, Amazon said in its statement. The transaction is scheduled to close in the second quarter of this year.



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