Continuing its push in the IP communication market

May 18, 2010 10:00 GMT  ·  By

Google is looking to buy yet another company, this time in the voice- and video-communication sector. The company has made an offer to acquire the Norwegian Global IP Solutions (GIPS) for $68.2 million in cash. GIPS provides technologies and solutions for voice and video communication over IP (Internet Protocol). Google has an interest in the market and has been making several acquisitions, as well as developing its own products that compete in it.

“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,” Rian Liebenberg, engineering director at Google, said. “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.”

Google is offering $2.12 per share adding up to a total of $68.2 million for the entire company. The price is a 142.1-percent markup over the current trading price for GIPS shares. The Norvegian company is listed at the Oslo Stock Exchange, but Google plans to delist it once it becomes the sole owner of GIPS.

GIPS develops technology and products covering the IP communication field. Its solutions are used by a number of high-profile players including Nortel, Oracle, Samsung, WebEx, Yahoo and Nimbuzz. Yahoo employs the GIPS technology to power the one-on-one video call feature introduced in Yahoo Messenger 10. It has been using GIPS’ voice technologies in its IM client since 2006.

Google itself has been a long-time GIPS customer. GIPS has unveiled solutions for video chat for the iPhone and the iPad and has recently expanded its offering to the Android platform. Google has pledged to continue to service GIPS’ existing customers, who would otherwise have to scramble to come up with a replacement solution. It’s unclear what the company plans to do with the technology, but it will likely continue to develop it for its Google Voice and upcoming communication products.