It’s starting to feel like 2006 all over again, with Google on an acquisition bender. Its latest target is a company that assists in collaboration on Microsoft Word documents. Google is continuing to build up its on-demand Apps story with this buy, giving customers another reason to dump Office. Datamation has the story.
Google is continuing its aggressive efforts to grow its role in the productivity applications space. But now, it’s snapping up DocVerse and its cloud-based collaboration add-on for archrival Microsoft Office.
That might seem like a counterintuitive acquisition for Google, which has long been pushing its own Google Apps suite as an alternative to Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office lineup. But to Google and DocVerse, the move is one more step in the search giant’s campaign to woo Office customers to Google.
DocVerse, a San Francisco startup founded by two former Microsoft product managers, is designed to bring cloud-based collaboration features to Microsoft Office users, offering real-time sharing and editing of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files.
The company said its key advantage is that it does not require users learn a new way to work because DocVerse plugs right into Microsoft Office.