Google Said to Be Buying Viewdle for About $45 Million

Google Inc. (GOOG) is close to buying facial-recognition software maker Viewdle for about $45 million, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Viewdle’s 36 employees, mostly based in the Ukraine, will join Google, said the people, who asked not to be named because the deal has yet to be made public. Google will announce the acquisition as early as tomorrow, they said.

Founded in 2007, Viewdle is backed by Best Buy Co., Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry Partners Fund and Qualcomm Inc.’s venture arm. The company’s software allows smartphone manufacturers to embed facial-recognition technology into their handsets.

Katelin Todhunter-Gerberg, a spokeswoman for Mountain View, California-based Google, declined to comment. Google’s acquisition of Viewdle was reported earlier by Forbes.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ari Levy in San Francisco at alevy5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net