Mountain View, California — Global search leader Google on Tuesday announced another acquisition to its roster with the purchase of Israel-based “LabPixies,” a small company that manufactures widgets and apps for several platforms including iGoogle, Facebook and the iphone, reportedly for $25 million.
Back in 2005, Labpixies was one of the first companies that created gadget for iGoogle, Google’s customizable home page, and currently it offers a vast assortment of games and lightweight utilities that run on the iPhone and Android phones.
iGoogle employs the OpenSocial foundation for applications. That is also used by Yahoo, Hi5, MySpace, and Orkut, indicating that OpenSocial gadgets will run on all those social-networking services. LabPixies also develops applications that run on Facebook’s platform. Google launched iGoogle in 2005 and has been gradually improving it since then.
“Over the years, we have collaborated closely together on a variety of projects, including the launch of a number of global OpenSocial based gadgets,” Loeb wrote in a blog post. “Of late, we realized that we could do more if we become part of the same team, and as such, we are thrilled to announce the acquisition of LabPixies,” wrote Loeb.
OpenSocial code is utilized as an API for social applications employed across multiple web sites and allows developers to make their applications reachable by millions of potential users.
Google intends to have LabPixies, a company with 10 employees, and the fourth company it has acquired this month, manage iGoogle across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Loeb wrote.
LabPixies, which claims to have more than 60 widgets and Google, which has added dozens of widgets to its offerings with its 67th acquisition, expects to have LabPixies further push its widgets onto more gadgets.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based search engine giant also anticipates to tap into LabPixies’ 50 million registered users who utilize the company’s mini-applications. Currently, LabPixies widgets that include news feeds, to-do lists, games and calendars. Some of LabPixies’ most popular widgets include Flood-It, Trio and Roundem Up.
A selection of LabPixies gadgets and apps. (Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)
“We both realize that the time was right to come together,” Labpixies wrote on its Web site. “We started Labpixies to create a truly personalized online experience and develop fun widgets that people find useful every day.”
“Working at Google will help us scale to more users as well as giving our team greater opportunities,” the company said. “The acquisition gives us an opportunity to learn from each other to bring more apps to users, help developers and improve the overall developer ecosystem,” Labpixies said.
In a note on its own site, LabPixies indicated that it will continue doing what it has been doing now. Labpixies, in a statement said there are no blueprints to change current products, but the company will assess this over time.
Google and LabPixies disclosed the acquisition individually late Monday and without disclosing financial details. The deal, however, is valued at $25 million, according to an Israeli newspaper estimate.
The Labpixies team will be stationed in Google’s Tel Aviv office, Loeb wrote.