Los Angeles — So far, Google’s Voice service has been portrayed as a piecemeal apparatus. With an eye on strengthening its VoIP offerings, search titan Google has made a clever move by harnessing the technology offered by “Gizmo5,” a startup which offers services similar to Skype into Google Voice and thus increase its share in the fast growing VoIP market, for a price of around $30 million, according to a report carried by TechCrunch.
VoIP startup Gizmo5 is a hot property, apparently. It is interesting to note that Michael Robertson, owner of Gizmo5, was in discussion with Skype over a possible acquisition offer; however with Skype resolving its legal issues with its former founders, ultimately, Gizmo5 landed up in the Google stable.
According to TechCrunch, the acquisition deal is done, and will be officially announced shortly, though no declaration has been made yet. Gizmo5 is a VoIP company offering voice calls between its users, but also with other third-party services and to regular phone numbers.
This acquisition will fill an important gap between the two of Google’s platforms. Users were needed regular land lines, a mobile number or another VOIP service for it to work. As such, with the Gizmo5, Google Voice will now obviously have a device for transferring all the way to your computer or smartphone, eliminating the need for a 3rd party to be involved in the transaction.
It is also an fascinating selection for Google Talk. Google Talk uses standard Jabber/SIP compliant devices to communicate between nodes. Technically, you have been able to reach any SIP compliant client with voice or video calls right from your Gmail page. With the pickup, you will now be able to make voice calls to POTS phone numbers from inside the Gmail page.
Of late Google Voice has been in news for several reasons including its ability to make and receive calls from a single number to FCC investigations based on a complaint filed by AT&T. This is even bigger news for establishments that might want to join up with their Google Apps program and move their phones to a unified VoIP messaging platform.
The company was founded six years ago and has raised $6 million from private investors and a further unspecified sum from its founder and CEO, Michael Robertson, of MP3.com fame. The total value of the funding is believed to be at around $20 million.
With the current acquisition, the service could probably get a major boost and a major area where Gizmo5’s technology is likely to help Google Voice is the capacity to make calls to traditional phone lines, a service which Gizmo5 has been successfully able to execute.
“Gizmo5 will act as a fastener that puts Google Voice and Google Talk together into a single product,” Michael Arrington, who first reported the rumored acquisition stated. “And that product looks a lot like a Skype competitor,” he added.