Google on shopping spree; buys Gizmo5 Internet calling service

The companies did not reveal terms of the deal, which was announced Thursday following rumors earlier this week that the acquisition might happen.

 

In a blog posting about the deal, Google said that while current Gizmo5 users can continue to use the service, no new customers can sign up for now.

 

Very little information remains on the Gizmo5 Web page. The service is similar to Skype's in that it allows users to make low-cost or free calls using a software client on their computers. Gizmo5 also offers a client for mobile-phone users.

 

The acquisition follows Google’s purchase of Grand Central more than two years ago. Fans of that service began to worry it might die at Google since it took about two years for Google to begin accepting new customers for the service, now called Google Voice.

 

Google Voice offers users a variety of services including transcribed voicemails and low-cost calling. Users can also get a new phone number and use that same number on multiple phones.

 

The service has been the subject of some controversy. It is the subject of a US Federal Communications Commission inquiry, launched as a result of complaints that Google blocks some calls.

 

Gizmo5 and Google Voice are already integrated; Google Voice customers can include a Gizmo5 account as one of their phones.

 

It is the fourth acquisition Google has announced this year. Earlier last week it said it would buy AdMob for $750 million.

 

In light of Google's announced plan to buy mobile advertising provider AdMob for $750 million, it seems like a good time to take a spin back through Google’s more notable buyouts over the years. Wikipedia lists more than 50 of them, and given Google’s sometimes mysterious ways, there are no doubt a few that didn’t make the public list.

 

Oh, and I’ll focus on the ones that really did happen. Not the rumors about Google buying out everyone from Twitter to Skype

 

The first buy-out this year was a $106 million purchase of video compression company On2, which could help Google more efficiently deliver video. That’s a big deal for Google, of course, given that it owns YouTube through a $1.6 billion buyout in 2006.

 

On2 isn't the first company Google has bought in connection with YouTube either. For example, it snapped up a video editing technology company called Omnisio last year for an estimated $15 million.

 

The other deal Google made this year was for ReCAPTCHA, which brings Google some cool authentication technology that it can use to accelerate its massive effort to scan tens of millions of books and periodicals.

 

"So we'll be applying the technology within Google not only to increase fraud and spam protection for Google products but also to improve our books and newspaper scanning process," read a post in Google's official blog authored by Luis von Ahn, cofounder of reCAPTCHA, and Will Cathcart, a Google product manager.