Google buys Jambool – $500 million invested in social networking

Google have bought Jambool, the company who make Solid Gold virtual currency which competes with Facebook Credits.

Google have stated that the buy over took place on the 13th of August and this is a part of their new and aggressive social networking strategy to challenge the big players. This virtual currency service helps providers of online games to put payment options into their applications.

The deal is apparently worth a whopping $70 million and it is the latest development in Google's social network behind recent purchases of Slide and a partnership with Zynga. Slide are responsible for many of the widgets for Facebook and Zynga produce Farmville and Mafia Wars which are played by a large percentage of the 500 million social networking audience.

Google told eWEEK “We're pleased and excited to welcome the Jambool team to Google. We are committed to offering consumers and merchants innovative digital payment solutions and Jambool will help Google evolve our payments offering and expand into digital goods and content”.

KitGuru says: Google are investing huge sums of money into this sector with almost $500 million spent so far.

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