Google Continues Its Social Gaming Shopping Spree

Google’s shopping spree continues, it used to be that the company bought a startup every week or so, not it looking like it’s every two days. The latest move, revealed by TechCrunch but so far unconfirmed, is also in the social gaming sector. Having acquired app-maker and social gaming company Slide last week, Google is now said to have bought Jambool, a virtual currency company, for about $70 million.

Google is said to be paying $55 million for the company and to be offering another $15 million to $20 million in earnouts. Jambool has raised $6 million in funding so far, so it makes for a lucrative exit for its investors. Google is said to have paid either $182 or $228 million for Slide, but that company was once valued at $500 million and had raised $78 million in funding.

Jambool offers the “Social Gold” platform, a virtual currency system for apps and social games. It is used by some big-name games like Mafia Wars and Lil’ Green Patch. However, Jambool, just like any other virtual currency company, has been under threat by Facebook’s own moves in the space with Facebook Credits.

With the acquisition, Google adds another piece to the puzzle as it tries to build Google Games, a social gaming platform which will tie in with its rumored social network Google Me and which is designed to go directly against Facebook.

While Facebook is no threat financially to Google yet, it is very close to becoming the largest website on the planet. As it ramps up its advertising products, Google may find itself with the first real competitor to its advertising business which is still the main revenue driver. Google is on track to bring in $25 billion in revenue this year and is sitting on about $30 billion in cash and equivalents, but the vast majority of its revenue comes from advertising.

Spending a few hundreds of millions of dollars to create a viable Facebook competitor is well withing Google’s means and the company is probably prepared to spend a lot more than that to ensure that it doesn’t get ‘replaced’ by the giant social network in the minds of most internet users.