MUMBAI: Google Inc. has acquired the on-demand communications security and compliance solutions company Postini, which serves more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users worldwide. Google acquired the company for $625 million.
Postini’s services, which include message security, archiving, encryption, and policy enforcement, can be used to protect a company’s email, instant messaging, and other web-based communications. Postini will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google. The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close by the end of the third quarter 2007.
“With this transaction, we’re reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes. With the addition of Postini, our apps are not just simple and appealing to users — they can also streamline the complex information security mandates within these organizations,” said Google chairman of the board and CEO Eric Schmidt.
Hosted services, like Google Apps and Postini solutions, provide organizations with high quality communications tools without the expense and hassle of traditional on-premise solutions. Google Apps, which includes Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Docs and Spreadsheets, and Personal Start Page, has been adopted by more than 100,000 businesses already. Postini solutions include email security, IM security, web security, message archiving, message encryption, and policy-enforced TLS.
“The response to Google Apps has been tremendous, with more than 1,000 small businesses signing up for the service every day. At the same time, large businesses have been reluctant to move to hosted applications due to issues of security and corporate compliance. By adding Postini products to Google’s technology, businesses no longer have to choose — employees get the intuitive products they want, and the company achieves the security and assurance it needs,” said Google Enterprise vice president and general manager Dave Girouard.
“As the market leader in on-demand secure communications and compliance solutions, Postini complements Google perfectly. We share a commitment to providing enterprise customers with compelling technology alternatives. This is an exciting milestone, one that will certainly lead to the next level of rapid innovation,” said Postini president and CEO Quentin Gallivan.
“Postini’s founding vision is to bring to market technology solutions that address enterprise messaging problems in a different way. Our on-demand offering liberates businesses from the burdens associated with traditional on-premise solutions. We are proud of what we have done to achieve our vision on behalf of our customers, and combining Google and Postini is a powerful next step in this creative journey,” said Postini founder, chief technical officer and executive vice president of product development Scott Petry.
Google will continue to support Postini customers and invest in Postini products.
