In its latest telecom move, Google is buying IP communications software developer Global IP Solutions (GIPS) for $68 million. GIPS develops software for both IP voice and video communications. Their software powers voice, video, and unified communications efforts for some of the most recognized brands on the planet including Yahoo, Aol, Webex, IBM Lotus, and Baidu.
So what’s Google up to with this buy? Well it’s no secret that Google is aggressively growing their IP communications portfolio. Between Google Voice, Google Apps, Google Talk, and GOOG-411 (just to name a few), there’s plenty of demand for IP communications horsepower within the Google empire. They will be a force going forward with respect to communications of all types – voice, video, data, and otherwise.
But by buying GIPS they also gain the power to lock out some competitors from GIPS technology. The aforementioned GIPS customer list includes companies that have similar IP communications products to Google, powered through GIPS technology. With this acquisition, Google may have just ‘pulled the rug out from under’ some of those efforts, forcing those competitors to potentially look elsewhere in the future.
in addition to now having the in house capability to add voice to just about any google product, look for them to launch a competing service to skype
They already have it…it's called Google Voice + GMail Video Chat. Granted, GVoice and GChat don't work together at all, however for PC-to-PC video calling I'll take GMail over Skype any day, and I use my GVoice account a fair bit.
I seem to remember that GIPS was actually providing Google with the mojo to make GMail Video Chat work anyway, so by buying the company Google is saving a few bucks in licensing fees down the road. Also, GIPS says that they can do video chat in Android, something that would be quite useful down the road with devices like the HTC Evo 4G and the average European phone, which has a camera up front.