Google Inc. on Friday said it has bought DocVerse, a startup company with technology that enables users to share and edit Microsoft Office files in real- time.

The acquisition is seen as Google's latest challenge against Microsoft Corp.'s dominance in the so-called productivity software.

"We have acquired DocVerse," Jonathan Rochelle, a group product manager at Google, announced in a blog posting.

"With DocVerse, people can begin to experience some of the benefits of web-based collaboration using the traditional Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint desktop applications," Rochelle said.

Google didn't disclose the amount of the deal. Citing person familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal reported that Google paid about 25 million U.S. dollars.

DocVerse, based in San Francisco, was founded in 2007 by Microsoft veterans Shan Sinha and Alex DeNeui.

"We're looking forward to the opportunity to scale our vision at Google," the two founders wrote in a posing Friday on DocVerse' s company blog, confirming the acquisition.

They said the first step after joining Google will be to combine DocVerse product with Google Apps, a web-based application suite, to "create a bridge between Microsoft Office and Google Apps."