Google buys Toronto social-games maker

SocialDeck, a Canadian company that makes games for smartphones and social networking sites, has been bought by Google.

Google Canada announced its purchase of SocialDeck on Twitter on Monday. A price wasn't disclosed.

The company, which has offices in Toronto and San Francisco, makes software that allows people to play games against each other in real time even if one player is on a mobile device such as an iPhone and another player is on a different platform, such as the Facebook website. It has four games: Pet Hero MD, Color Connect, Shake & Spell, and Shake & Spell 3D.

"SocialDeck's team and technology is a perfect addition to our current team of engineers in Waterloo, to continue to innovate in the social and mobile web," Google Canada spokeswoman Wendy Rozeluk told The Canadian Press.

SocialDeck was founded in 2008 and received financing from the BlackBerry Partners Fund in March 2009.

The purchase is Google's latest move into social gaming.

In July, Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the company is partnering with Zynga Game Network Inc., the maker of the popular Facebook games Farmville.

The article cited sources as saying Google has also been in talks with other social-gaming developers, including Playdom Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc.'s Playfish.

The blog TechCrunch had posted earlier about the Zynga partnership, citing sources that said the company would be the corner of Google Games, set to launch later this year.

It also pointed to Google's U.S. job posting this summer for the position of project management leader of games, based at Google's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. The person hired would be responsible for "developing Google's games commerce product strategy."