Google has acquired social gaming company Slide for a reported $228 million.
The news was initially broken by the New York Times although TechCrunch is claiming that the sale is in the region of $182 million.
However, despite no official comment from Google or Slide on the matter right now, it is clear that it marks another important step in Google's move into social and casual gaming.
Sliding into gaming?
Slide makes popular Facebook apps such as SuperPoke and SPP Ranch. The acquisition follows Google's investments in social gaming giant Zynga, the FarmVille developer.
Google is expected to make an official announcement about the deal very shortly.
However, speaking at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe this week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt commented on Google's overall social and social gaming strategies, telling reporters:
"There have been a whole bunch of leaks. Some have been correct, some not correct."
He added that Google is "not trying to do what Facebook does… The world does not need another Facebook". When asked specifically about Google's moves into casual and social gaming he added, teasingly:
"I would doubt that we'll get into significant gaming — but you never know."
You can watch the Google CEO discussing this further in the video below (around 1 minute 40 seconds in).
Via TechCrunch
