@Last Software, makers of the 3D sketch software SketchUp, has been acquired by Google Inc.
Google Inc. said it has bought 3D modeler @Last Software, the second acquisition announced in less than a week by the search engine giant as it builds out its expanding Web services platform.
The news comes in an announcement posted to the SketchUp Web site by @Last co-founder Brad Schell.
Schell explained that the seeds of Google’s acquisition of @Last Software when the company recently developed a plug-in for Google Earth.
The tools are meant for a general audience, not just design professionals, and include a plug-in for Google Earth, the company’s desktop software for viewing satellite images of geographical locations. The two companies had worked together on the plug-in, which was released this year.
The future of SketchUp just got a big shot in the arm, so please do not worry about the product or our mission, said Schell.
At first, it was kind of hard to imagine; after all, we had been blazing our own trail for so long. But after we kicked it around awhile, it started to seem right, said Schell.
Google’s resources will allow us to serve our current users better, and Google’s reach will allow us to expose more people to SketchUp in one year than we could have touched in 10 years on our own, Schell said. “3D for Everyone” is becoming a reality; we are bringing the ‘3D’ part; Google’s contributing the ‘Everyone.’"
Indeed, acquisitions of small companies like @Last could increase over the coming months as more of the major portals, including Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.’s MSN, look to add services to their Web platforms. For many small Internet companies today, a "building-to-be-bought" strategy is their best chance for survival, Allen Weiner, analyst for Gartner Inc., said.
@Last’s headquarters would remain in Boulder, and it would continue to have offices in Munich and London, and that the software will continue to be improved and expanded and sell SketchUp, which costs $495. Schell said the company’s name would change to Google, but the product would still be sold as SketchUp.
Acquisition talks started when the companies worked together on the Google Earth plug-in, Schell said. "It quickly became apparent that we could really stir things up together."
Without providing any details, Schell hinted that Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., intended to do more integration between @Last’s technology and Earth.
SketchUp, available for Mac OS X and Windows, is a 3D design program created to help designers, architects and others to create, view and modify 3D ideas quickly and easily. The company’s latest version, SketchUp 5, runs on Intel Macs using Rosetta, and @Last is committed to creating a version that runs natively, too.
The acquisition was the second for Google this month. The company bought startup Writely, an online word processing service that allows users to store and work with text documents on the Web.
Google has declined to discuss its integration plans for Writely, which places the search engine in direct competition with Microsoft Corp.’s plans to eventually make all its software, including Office, available as a Web service.
Financial details were not disclosed, nor were there any indication as to Google’s plans for @Last’s sole product called SketchUp, which enables people to build design concepts in 3D.
For Google, @Last will certainly add value to its mapping platform by enabling designers to overlay SketchUp models on Google Earth, Weiner said. The technology is also likely to be used in other Google services.