Google Buys VoIP Provider Gizmo5

Google announced last Thursday that it has bought Gizmo5, an Internet VoIP provider which will greatly enhance the services offered by Google Voice.

Gizmo, which operates on open standards, enables free VoIP calls over the Internet and inexpensive calls to landline and mobile phones, a feature Google Voice did not previously offer.

The acquisition and resultant integration with Google’s current offerings could transform Google’s Voice, Talk and Wave products into a true unified VoIP communications platform, a mighty service which analysts are pitting against Skype, cable companies and even traditional landline providers.

According to Google’s Voice Blog, Gizmo5′s engineers will be joining the Google Voice team, and while current Gizmo5 users are still able to use the service, they are not allowing new members to join at this time.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although TechCrunch which first broke the news reported the purchase price at $30 million. Gizmo5 had raised $6 million in a round of funding three years ago.

Wired has more.
PC World has an interesting analysis of the acquisition
Read the Google blog announcement.

Related posts:

1. Google Testing Desktop VoIP Client
2. Google Launches VoIP Application
3. Google Buys Widevine
4. Google Voice Enables Number Porting
5. Google Voice: Big Plans for 2010