You're reading: Google buys Ukrainian firm in multimillion dollar deal

Google’s Motorola Mobility has purchased Viewdle, a leading independent imaging and gesture recognition company whose research and development team is based in Kyiv.

The announcement came on Oct. 4 by Motorola Mobility, a U.S. maker of smartphones and other communication products.

“Motorola Mobility announced that it has acquired Viewdle,” read a press statement released by Motorola on Oct. 4.

“Motorola and Viewdle have an existing commercial agreement and have been collaborating for some time. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.”

Citing sources, Forbes Ukraine magazine estimated that Viewdle was purchased for $30-45 million.
Launched in 2006, Viewdle is perhaps best known for its application for Android devices that allow users to tag people in their pictures and upload them to any social network.

Last year, Viewdle released a multiplayer role-playing Android game that uses facial analysis to determine which side a game player is on based on facial characteristics.

The company evolved from the Cybernetics Institute in Kyiv, a former military university laboratory project.

Headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley, Viewdle’s Kyiv office is home to its research and development team of more than 40 employees.

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].