Menlo Park (ip-192.com): In a bid to beef up its Google Talk offerings, Goggle acquired VoIP startup Gizmo5. The price Google agreed to pay is $30 Million in cash, according to a Techcrunch article. Gizmo5 tries to compete with Skype, but the service is based on open protocols.
Gizmo5 may be an almost perfect fit with a number of Google products. Google Talk allows voice calls between users but has no PSTN link to allow incoming or outbound calls to real phones. Gizmo5 does this well for some time. While Google Voice is an excellent VoIP and phone identity service, Gizmo5 is a soft phone end point. In other words, Google phone users will be able to make and receive calls to their Google Voice phone number from any computer.
Google can be sure to attract further attention from established phone companies worried that market dynamics may change in the near future. Google has acquired a foothold in the market with its Google Voice and Google Talk service. Free VoIP phone service that is driven by advertising revenue could be the next step if the Gizmo5 acquisition is more than a rumor.
Gizmo5 was founded in April of 2003 by Michael Robertson.
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