Google buys Global IP Solutions for $68.2 mln

Web giant looking to beef its online video and audio conferencing technologies

Google announced on Tuesday it plans to acquire Global IP Solutions (GIPS).  The transaction agreement agreement under which Google Acquisition Holdings Inc., will make a cash offer to acquire all the shares of GIPS for $2.12 in cash per share or an approximate total price of $68.2 million.  Google said the offer will not be subject to any financing condition and will be funded from Google's existing cash resources.

This is another step towards Google's plans to transform and accelerate IP communications, like voice and video conferencing over the Web.  Think iPad, iPhone and Android to name a few.  Rian Liebenberg, Google's Engineering Director commented,

"The Web is evolving quickly as a development platform, and real-time video and audio communication over the Internet are becoming important new tools for users […] GIPS’s technology provides high quality, real-time audio and video over an IP network, and we’re looking forward to working with the GIPS team at Google to continue innovating for the Web platform.”

Global IP Solutions has been a player in this space for some time now.  Headquartered here in San Francisco, GIPS provides voice and video processing in IP communications.  It serves application developers, service providers and network equipment vendors.  The company has a hefty list of big time clients including Nortel, Oracle, Samsung, WebEx, Yahoo!, AOL and several others.  

Based on the release, it doesn't sound like Google plans to shut down any operations at GIPS, especially with the major clients it's working with.  Emerick Woods, CEO of GIPS commented, "With Google’s global reach, scale and widely recognized leadership, we are confident that our existing customers will continue to be fully supported while we continue to enhance and extend our products and technology at Google.”