I disagree. These robotic company acquisitions were spearheaded by Andy Rubin after he was asked to step aside from Android. When Andy left Google these companies were left rudderless. There was also a lot of friction between Boston Dynamics and the robotics division within Google. This is simply Google unloading unprofitable acquisitions (due in most part to Google not accepting military contracts) Andy made.

Tremendous gain for Japan, and everyone else, eventually. Theres huge demand and pressure for automation in Japan because of their aging population. I think softbank will find some very usefull and apreciated applications for these robots.

I agree, but I wonder if it is because main usages for such robots are military and that would make a negative opinion impact on Google.

yes its a great loss for Google.

but they have plenty of things going on this is just another distraction from there core product groups.