Google Acquires Email Startup reMail – Founder To Join Gmail

Google has just picked up Y Combinator incubated startup reMail, bringing its talented founder Gabor Cselle on board the Gmail team.

reMail was an excellent iPhone application that would download all your email to your phone, making searching your email wildly faster. The application could also save you money if you needed to roam outside of the United States where AT&T rates can be abusive.

The application will be pulled (sadly) from the App store. If you have already purchased it, it will remain functional.

The application retailed, before being removed, for $4.99. Google might take the opportunity to use Mr. Cselle to build a similar application inside of the Gmail team, but it seems more likely that this acquisition is more a talent grab than a product purchase.

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At the time of writing, no price is known for the transaction. reMail had raised money not just from  Y Combinator but also Paul Buchheit and Sanjeev Singh (Friendfeed co-founders).

Gabor Cselle had this to say on the acqusition and his future:

“Gmail is where my obsession with email started as an engineering intern back in 2004, and I’m thrilled to be coming back to a place with so many familiar faces. reMail’s goal was reimagine mobile email, and I’m proud we have built a product that so many users find useful. Still, I feel like we’ve only seen the beginning of what’s possible. Google is the best place in the world to improve the status quo on how people communicate and share information. If you have what it takes to make these changes happen, I encourage you to reach out and come join me.”

While reMail is gone for now, Gmail has just picked up a very capable employee who they intend to use as a product manager. More talent in Gmail means better Gmail, which is something that we can all pop champagne over, whether wants to buy our startup or not.

You can read Mr. Cselle’s note on the acquisition here.