Mountain View, California — Search and advertising giant Google, last weekend spread its wings to Toronto, Canada-based to acquire BumpTop, a software company that lets users make their computer desktops resemble an actual 3D desk for an undisclosed amount of money.
Earlier on Sunday, rumors swirled over the Internet that the Mountain View-based company was planning to buy the startup. The news were confirmed in the evening when the BumpTop team posted an official announcement on their homepage.
“Today, we have a big announcement to make: we are excited to announce that we have been acquired by Google!,” a note posted to the company’s Web site said. “This means that BumpTop (for both Windows and Mac) will no longer be available for sale. Additionally, no updates to the products are planned.”
Although the exact terms and conditions of the deal were not disclosed, but according to analysts estimates that it must have been around $40 million, with venture capitalists having invested up to $3 million since the company launched back in 2007.
Speculation about the deal was first revealed on Wellington Financial’s blog, as the author observed that Microsoft was no longer a BumpTop BizSpark partner.
BumpTop creates a 3D desktop. (Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET)
Also, the Canadian start-up said it would make its software available for download for one week. A Google representative affirmed the acquisition but declined to discuss specifics of the deal.
BumpTop debuted in April 2009, three years after a video demo of the freeware replacement desktop captivated YouTube viewers. The company launched a version of their product for Mac back in January, announced that both the PC and Mac versions of the software will “no longer be available for sale.” The software, which operates on top of Windows and Mac OS X, allows files to be thrown into loose piles, tidied into neat stacks, or fanned out like a deck of cards.
How Google will incorporate Bumptop remains to be seen. Speculation has it that the company will employ the 3D technology to revamp either or both of its operating systems — Android and Chrome OS.
This is the fifth acquisition by Google in the month of April, after Episodic, Plink, Agnilux and Labpixies. BumpTop’s technology would seem to be right at home on mobile phones and tablets and it could be a way for Google to try to advance to the next move in its current battles with Apple over dominance in the mobile arena.
Bumptop was founded by Anand Agarawala, who remains the company’s CEO, and launched its flagship application, BumpTop Pro earlier this year for Windows and Mac platforms.
Check out the video demonstrations of the software below: