Google Acquires GrandCentral
Source: smithonvoip.com
What Does Google Have Planned For GrandCentral?
Tech Crunch is reporting that Google is in talks to acquire GrandCentral, the phone number management software that allows users to manage all of life’s phone numbers through one central number. From what I have heard, the purchase price is anywhere from $50 to $120 million. Not bad for a company that went beta late last year, with a simplistic idea and a rather simplistic application structure (ie I believe this sort of functionality could be replicated by a team of Google engineers). This leads me to believe that Google could be using GrandCentral as a gateway to acquire other telephony applications, such as Gizmo Project.
Why Google and Gizmo?
So how did I get from Google and GrandCentral to Google and Gizmo Project? Simple. GoogleTalk is a sub-par soft client. Gizmo Project is the second best soft client on the market, in my opinion, next to Skype. Gizmo Project allows users to manage all of their soft clients from the Gizmo interface. If they can get Skype to work, Gizmo Project could be used to aggregate (like a search engine…) or manage all of your soft clients (sort of like GrnadCentral). With GrandCentral and Gizmo Project already inter-operable, Google would presumably have the ultimate telecommunications management application combo. Purely speculation here, but as a standalone the GrandCentral acquisition does not make a ton of sense, and even as an enhancement to GoogleTalk, it does not make GoogleTalk that more of a compelling client, which leads me to believe this is a gateway purchase…that will lead to more telephony companies being bought-up in short order.
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