The Inquirer reports "well placed sources" have informed them Google will be purchasing Valve "any second now." Founded in 1996, Valve is responsible for developing gaming series hits including Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress, Counterstrike, among others.
Google#DY#s rumored interest in the developer isn#DY#t entirely clear, but one might venture an obvious guess the successful Steam distribution channel is among the big draws of a potential buyout. Especially, considering the search engine giant recently launched Lively, a new, avatar-based embeddable social network and virtual world that allows the use of avatars linked to Google accounts. Going into games is the next logical step.
Valve#DY#s response to the rumor: that it#DY#s a rumor.
