Google announced that it has acquired another small company today, Picnik.com. According to Yahoo.com, the financial terms for the deal were not disclosed; Picnik employs 20 people and is 5 years old.
The 20 employees have already joined other Google staff at the office in Seattle and will be working with the Picasa group. Picnik seems like a perfect match for Picasa as the company offers web based photo editing and it only makes sense to use the company’s IP to help enhance Picasa.
Google has been on a campaign to buy up smaller companies to help expand its portfolio of offerings; most recently they have acquired Ardvark and reMail.
Google is looking for ways to help increase its bottom line but must find ways to do so creatively. Google is known for its free products so it would be unlikely that they will start charging for any of their existing products. Google’s main source of revenue is its advertising but they also know that they need to diversify their income incase of a collapse in the online advertising market.