Stefan Mileschin

Google has snapped up German firm Nik Software, doing so getting its hands on Instagram rival Snapseed.

Senior Vice President,Engineering for Google Vic Gundotra announced on Google+ that the firm had made the acquisition, though no further financial details were disclosed.

"Today I’m excited to welcome +Nik Software to the Google family!" Gundotra said. "We want to help our users create photos they absolutely love, and in our experience Nik does this better than anyone."

In a statement on its website, Nik Software also announced the deal which will give Google access to photo editing tools.

"We are pleased to announce that Google has acquired Nik Software," the statement read, adding that the firm has spent 17 years building "world class digital image editing tools".

"We’ve always aspired to share our passion for photography with everyone, and with Google’s support we hope to be able to help many millions more people create awesome pictures."

Nik Software's Snapseed software is regarded as a competitor to the immensely popular photo editing tool Instagram, purchased by Facebook in a billion dollar deal.

With Google announcing the deal through its Google+ site it appears likely that the photo editing software will be used in conjunction with its own social network offering, one of Facebook's rivals.

http://news.techeye.net/internet/goo...rival-snapseed