Google Inc.’s share price down, to acquire visual-effects startup Zync

Google Inc. is to acquire the cloud-based visual-effects software company Zync Inc., the Mountain View, California-based company said, as cloud computing competition with Amazon.com intensifies. The terms of the deal were not revealed.

“Creating amazing special effects requires a skilled team of visual artists and designers, backed by a highly powerful infrastructure to render scenes,” Google said. “Many studios, however, don’t have the resources or desire to create an in-house rendering farm, or they need to burst past their existing capacity.”

Zync Inc., which was founded three years ago, provides a range of video and special-effects services via the Internet. The graphics-rendering tools of the studio have been used on a number of feature films and many ads.

“Together Zync and (Google) Cloud Platform will offer studios the rendering performance and capacity they need, while helping them manage costs.” Belwadi Srikanth, product manager in Google, wrote in a blog post. “For example, with per-minute billing, studios arent trapped into paying for unused capacity when their rendering needs dont fit in perfect hour increments.”

Google Inc. was 0.40% down to close at $577.86 per share yesterday, valuing the company at $394.33bn. According to CNN Money, the 43 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Google Inc. have a median target of $670.00, with a high estimate of $750.00 and a low estimate of $570.00. The median estimate represents a 13.92% increase from the last price of $588.12.