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Google Acquires Gizmo5

By Alex Wilhelm
November 9, 2009
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Google Acquires Gizmo5Just moments after the news broke that Google had acquired AdMob, TechCrunch has broken news that Google has purchased VoIP startup Gizmo5.

At the moment the terms of the deal are unknown. Gizmo5 was reported to have been in play with Skype when the IP behind Skype’s P2P technology was in legal quandary.

Gizmo5 was founded in 2003, and has raised a total of 6 million dollars to date. The rumored price was around $30 million.

Michael Arrington points out that: “Gizmo5 is a good fit with a number of Google products. Google Talk allows voice calls between users but has no PSTN link to allow incoming or outbound calls to real phones. Gizmo5 does this well already… This looks to me like Gizmo5 will be the glue that puts Google Voice and Google Talk together into a single product. And that product looks a lot like a Skype competitor.”

If that is true or not, it does seem that Google is pushing to expand its voice operations in one way or another. This combined with the AdMob news, and you begin to wonder if Google could build an ad-supported calling network, or any other combination of voice and advertisement.

It seems doubtful that we will see a strategic announcement from Google explaining their plans for Gizmo5, indeed what is more likely that the company will disappear into its new parent for a seeming eternity, before it reappears under new guise.

For now what Google is up to is anyone’s guess.


Tags: ,   Source: TechCrunch

  • It won't take long before the only thing you need is Google..
  • sri
    Whoa.. Always thought that Gizmo5 would be a valuable addition to google and wondered why goog was not bargaining for it, when skype was going out of it's way. But then smart of google - no bidding war and bargaining.
    Now, this should be the start of of alarm bells for skype - they should somehow stop their litigating, settle with the inventors and get bigtime into SIP telephony - else mark my words, in 2 years GV/G5 will take over a lot of market share.
    Google seems to be till now a very benign version of IBM (70s, 80s), Microsoft (90s, 2000s) and giving consumers multiple multiple reasons for a lot of love - let's see how it proceeds!
  • redpepper
    magicJack Users Can Now Connect To Google's Gizmo5

    Users of the magicJack can now place and receive calls using almost any phone provider in the world including Gizmo5 recently acquired by Google. To top it off, magicJack users now also have a means of connecting directly to office PBX systems using the industry standard SIP communications protocol.

    To take advantage of these new "open network" calling possibilities, magicJack users simply need to install the new SIP dialer software plugin "XlitejackPlugin". "XlitejackPlugin" allows magicJack and SIP calls to be placed concurrently from the same regular or cordless phone.

    The SIP dialer software plugin supports the use of Counterpath Corporation's X-Lite SIP softphone dialer. Almost every phone provider in the world provides setup instructions and support for using the X-Lite SIP softphone dialer with their networks.

    To place SIP calls, just dial # before the number you want to call. Regular magicJack calls are placed as normal. For incoming calls, just answer the phone when it rings.

    "XlitejackPlugin" can be downloaded at http://www.pcphonesoft.com
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