Google buys virtual-currency start-up

[charrington]

Google has purchased a virtual-currency software company called Jambool, adding to recent acquisitions to it social-networking stable.

Jambool's founders, Chief Executive Officer Vikas Gupta and Chief Technology Officer Reza Hussein, announced the deal Friday on the company's Web site. Terms of the deal were not revealed, but earlier reports about a possible deal estimated the deal to be worth $70 million.

"When the opportunity arose to join forces with Google to execute against this vision, we couldn't pass it up," their statement said. "We are thrilled to bring the Social Gold platform to Google's global users."
Google representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Started in 2006, the start-up manufactures a product called Social Gold, which lets other sites build virtual-currency infrastructures. Google runs its own PayPal-like transaction platform, Google Checkout, and may have been looking for a virtual-currency system to complement it.



http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20013676-93.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

[Optimus]

Is there anything that Google won't buy up?