Google Snaps up another Top App Developer-Nik Software

Nik Software

Google has acquired smartphone image app developer Nik Software giving the company an alternative technology to offer users that will compete with Facebook’s Instagram. Google has not disclosed what it has paid for the company.

Nik is an established player in the mobile and desktop photo editing market and develops both for the general user space as well as having products that are targeted for the professional space as well. It was founded in 1995.

The company has won a number of awards for its programs including the 2011 International Technical Image Press Association (TIPA) Best Photo Software for its Complete Collection of professional photography products, which includes Color Efex Pro, HDR Efex Pro, Sharpener Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, and Dfine.

However it is likely that the app that caught Google’s attention is Snapseed, the first one that Nik released for the mobile space. Released last year it has already gained over 9 million users and won the iPad App of the Year from Apple’s App Store last year. This year TIPA awarded the app as winner in the Best Mobile Photo App category. Google has not laid out what it is planning on doing with the company.

Google has been a very aggressive player in the merger and acquisition space over the past few years with 119 deals so far in the company’s history. This year it has now acquired 10 companies counting Nik Software. Others include Meebo, QuickOffice, Sparrow, Frommer’s and VirusTotal.

Facebook Gains Mobile Development Team with Spool Deal

Facebook has gained the development team, but not the technology or assets of startup Spool, a mobile app developer that has in the past created programs for both the Android and Apple iOS operating systems.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed but on its blog Spool announced that it was now becoming part of Facebook and that it was shutting down its site and provided instructions on how to move off of Spool.

The company had only come out of beta late last year and started 2012 off by raising $1 million from a number of angle investors that included SVAngle, Felicis Ventures, Start Fund, Stephen Chen, Bill Lohse and Charles River Ventures. Its apps enable users to bookmark Internet content, including video, for later reading both on and off line.

The move is part of a growing trend from Facebook, and others, to purchase companies more for their design teams and capabilities than their actual products. Some of the recent deals from Facebook include Face.com and Glancee. Google has recently purchased Quickoffice and Meebo.

For Facebook the recent deals all appear to be centered on enhancing its mobile technologies, an area that it has admitted it is having issues in monetizing. Facebook has said that Spool’s team will help develop building tools to facilitate consumption of mobile content.

Google Buys Social Chat Developer Meebo

Google has moved to enhance its Google+ social media site with the purchase of Meebo, an instant messaging and communications company that will bring a host of tools and capabilities and users to Google.

The terms of the deal have so far not been announced although numbers in the $100 million range have been bandied about by TechCrunch and others. Meebo, a seven year old company has raised $70 million in funding over the course of its history. From the post on the Meebo blog it appears that much if not all of its team will be moving over to Google.

A key feature will be the Meebo Bar, a feature that permits users to chat that sits on a number of web pages. This enables advertisers to sit just below an audience of prospective customers. Meebo has a number of other capabilities that will likely find their way to Google+ such as the ability to customize content streams to meet your interests.

The addition of the Meebo audience, estimated at approximately 100 million users, will also be a big boost if many come over to Google +, which has an estimated 170 million users, still a far cry from rival Facebook’s almost 1 billion users.

Google+ has been growing steadily since it was introduced but when we talk to or visit sports teams they only have a focus on Facebook. Rarely do I see a site that also promotes Google+ as well, although this is occurring more frequently. Hopefully this and additional efforts by Google will fix that issue since with more competition I believe we will see better apps and web pages.

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