Google Steps Up the Pace with Latest Picnik Buy
Google is kick starting its legendary record of acquiring promising startups once again by announcing its third deal in three weeks - the photo editing site Picnik.
Based in Seattle, the 5-year-old award winning site Picnik was bought for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition brings former Google employee and now Picnik's CEO, Jonathan Sposato, back to the search giant. He will be tasked with overviewing the integration of his service with Google's own photo offering, Picasa. His team of 20 will be integrated into the Picasa department, which is set to rival competitors like Photoshop.com.
Brian Axe, Google's Product Management Director, commented in a company blog, "Until recently, you had to edit your photos using client software on your computer" and added that Google has now acquired "one of the first sites to bring photo editing to the cloud".
Since September, Google has stepped up its pace by buying eight companies, such as mobile e-mail service reMail and social search engine Aardvark.
Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in October that the company is resuming its historic pace of acquiring one small company a month on average, with larger deals happening every year or two.
