Google Inc. bought JotSpot, a Silicon Valley start-up that helped pioneer the market for collaborative business software like online spreadsheets, in the latest move by the Web search leader into territory dominated by Microsoft Corp.
In a statement on Google’s Web site, JotSpot’s co-founder and chief executive, Joe Kraus, said his company agreed to the takeover following a growing push by Google to offer competing software. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Three-year-old JotSpot had developed a series of online productivity software programs that offer many of the functions of Microsoft Office programs like Microsoft Word or Excel spreadsheets. But instead of running on individual computers, JotSpot applications are delivered as Web-based services.
Following the lead of companies like JotSpot, Mountain View, California-based Google entered the market this year by acquiring the Writely word processor and introducing other Web-based applications such as Google Spreadsheets and Google Calendar.
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