Google acquires SlickLogin Israeli security start-up

The global internet giant Google is acquiring SlickLogin, an Israeli developer of sound-based password alternative, in an "acqui-hiring deal", which means SlickLogin's staff and knowledge will be integrated into Google, SlickLogin confirmed the deal on its website Sunday.

"Today we're announcing that the SlickLogin team is joining Google," Xinhua quoted the three founders of the young start-up as saying. They added that Google "shares our core beliefs that logging in should be easy instead of frustrating... We couldn't be more excited to join their efforts."

No financial figures of the transaction were disclosed.

SlickLogin was founded less than a year ago. The company is based on a novel idea to enable end users to log-in easily into password-protected websites by using a uniquely generated sound.

The company is yet to launch a commercial product and accrued clients, so the deal actually represents an acquisition of the technology itself.

Last week, it was reported that Google is becoming more secretive about its acquisitions as the Internet company hunts for promising innovations and engineering talent to help shape the future of technology.

The subtle change surfaced last week in Google's 2013 annual report. Google Inc. didn't quantify the total number of deals that it closed last year in the regulatory filing, marking the first time that the Mountain View, Calif., company has withheld that detail since going public in 2004.

Instead of specifying the total number of acquisitions during 2013, Google only said it spent a combined $489 million on all deals besides its purchase of online mapping service Waze. The Waze deal was so large that government regulations prompted Google to break out the $969 million price paid for that acquisition.

Written with agency inputs