Google to acquire e-mail service firm Postini for $625 million

09 July 2007

Mumbai: Google Inc., the world''s largest internet search engine, will acquire e-mail security company Postini for $625 million to expand its services for businesses.

San Carlos, California-based Postini is a closely held company that sells software to encrypt and archive e-mail and instant messages. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the third quarter, the companies said in a statement.

Postini supplies on-demand communications security and compliance solutions to more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users worldwide.

Google said the deal could enable it provide organisations with more hosted services similar to its Google Apps package, which includes its e-mail service Gmail, Calendar, and Talk, its messaging service.

Google plans to use the technology to boost the security and compliance features of Google Apps, its hosted suite of productivity applications.

With Postini''s security software and Google''s Apps, corporations can use the software without putting the onus on their administrators to install and maintain traditional applications packages.