Google has purchased a virtual-currency software company called Jambool, adding to its social-networking portfolio.
Jambool's founders, chief executive Vikas Gupta and chief technology officer Reza Hussein, announced the deal on Friday on the company's web site. Terms of the deal were not revealed, but earlier reports about a possible deal were offering estimates of about $70m (£44.6m).
"When the opportunity arose to join forces with Google to execute against this vision, we couldn't pass it up," they said in the statement. "We are thrilled to bring the Social Gold platform to Google's global users."
Launched 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 the virtual-currency system would complement it.
For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Google buys virtual-currency start-up on CNET News.
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