Google To Buy VOIP Technology Firm Global IP Solutions For $68.2 Million
Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is offering $68.2 million to buy up publicly-traded Global IP Solutions, a San Francisco-based company which sells technology used to deliver voice and video over IP networks.
Context & Ripple Effects
Google has been building communications capabilities since its GrandCentral acquisition, with Google Voice later drawing telecom attention for its calling features and an internally tested Google Voice desktop application extending the service beyond the browser. The proposed Global IP Solutions purchase adds underlying voice-and-video-over-IP technology to that arc, alongside Google's pending On2 video-technology deal.
First-order effects
- Global IP Solutions would move from a public supplier of voice and video IP technology toward Google ownership under the $68.2 million offer.
- Google gains a route to control more of the technology layer beneath its voice and video services rather than relying solely on external suppliers.
Second-order effects
- Telecom operators already responding to Google Voice's calling features face a Google that is seeking deeper control over the software stack used to deliver internet communications.
- Customers using Global IP Solutions technology, including the web and conferencing providers identified in syndicated coverage, must account for a key supplier being acquired by a company expanding its own communications products.
Third-order effects
- If Google combines service-layer products such as Google Voice with acquired media and IP-delivery technology, internet communications competition shifts toward companies that own both consumer interfaces and the underlying real-time stack.
The trend: Google is assembling communications services and enabling media technology into a more vertically integrated voice-and-video platform.