Google Acquires Nik Software, the creators of iOS and Mac photo app Snapseed

Google has just acquired Nik Software, the creators of the well-known Snapseed app for iOS and Mac, for an undisclosed amount. Although Nik Software has been around for quite a long time — 17 years in fact — according to The Verge, the deal was centered around the filter-focused Snapseed app.

Google’s Vic Gundotra welcomed the company with an announcement on Google+, detailing that Google wants to “help [its] users create photos they absolutely love, and in [Google’s] experience Nik does this better than anyone.”

Nik Software has released a statement:

We are pleased to announce that Google has acquired Nik Software. For nearly 17 years, we’ve been guided by our motto, “photography first”, as we worked to build 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.

We’re incredibly grateful for all of your support and hope you’ll join us on the next phase of our journey as part of Google.

With Facebook’s Instagram purchase, this deal is particularly interesting news. It now appears that Snapseed, or at least Snapseed-like features, will be integrated somehow into Google+. Given that photos are such an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to dominating social on both the Web and mobile devices, this was a great decision on Google’s part.

We’ve reached out to both Nik and Google and will update this post with their responses.