New Google acquisition: DocVerse

Google plucked another start-up from the Bay Area Friday, this time adding DocVerse to its Google Apps team.

The deal--which The Wall Street Journal reported was valued at $25 million--will allow Google to start blending DocVerse's Microsoft Office plug-in software into Google Apps,DocVerse and Google said in blog postings on their respective sites. DocVerse's software and service is designed to let Office users who still need a lot of the power and features of the desktop version of that software share documents and track changes with colleagues online.

The move had been expected for a while, but a Google representative said it was too soon to know how quickly DocVerse's products would get integrated into the Google Apps software. Building out the Google Apps experience is a big priority for Google this year, as it attempts to get more and more people comfortable with Internet-delivered software while antagonizing rival Microsoft.

DocVerse--founded by two Microsoft alumni--also becomes the fourth Google acquisition in recent weeks. Since the beginning of the year, Google has purchased Picnik, and Remail, Aardvark, and it completed the previously announced purchase of On2 Technologies. That's a little ahead of the pace outlined by CEO Eric Schmidt last year to purchase one company a month.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10464700-265.html