Google Continues Acquisition Spree

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc acquired online photo-editing site Picnik, as the Web search leader continues with a deal binge includes three acquisitions in about three weeks.

Google did not disclose the financial terms of the deal for Picnik, a 5-year-old Seattle-based start-up which said on its website that it has 20 employees.

Google spokesman Andrew Pederson said in an email message that the Picnik team has joined Google’s Seattle office and will work with Google’s Picasa group. Picasa is Google’s Web photo sharing service.

The deal is the latest example of Google’s increasing appetite for acquisitions, as the company’s core Internet search business has benefited from a recovery in the advertising sector.

In October, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the company would resume its historic pace of acquiring one small company per month on average, with larger deals happening every year or two.

Last month Google acquired Aardvark, a social search engine and mobile Web email service reMail. Since September, Google has acquired 8 companies, said Pederson.

Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette, speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Monday, said that Google was beefing up its ranks as business conditions improve.

"The bottleneck for us right now is engineering. How many engineers can we find given that we have all these great opportunities?" Pichette said.

Picnik allows users to edit online photos from directly within a Web browser, eliminating the need for special, stand-alone editing software.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)