Google buys more security
The buying spree continues on at Google. This time the search company is striking even further into Microsoft territory by buying "security compliance" software company Postini. The deal is for $625 million, one of Google's bigger buys. (Online ad service firm DoubleClick ($3.1 billion) and online video company YouTube ($1.65 billion) are the bigger Google buys. Otherwise Google has concentrated on buying startups.
With Postini, Google strikes again at Microsoft's ownership of the business e-mail sector, bolstering the desirability for companies of Google's email software as an alternative to Microsoft's Outlook and Exchange. Postini's software does several things. First, it filters spam out of e-mail. IT also offers a high level of security to e-mail systems. Third, it offers companies a way of easily viewing and managing (and also spying on?) employees access to email and the Web. Read this Salon post for a more sinister view of what Postini provides.
Postini is one of the three largest e-mail security service companies. According to a Bloomberg report, it already has 11 million users at 35,000 companies. The others are a UK company called MessageLabs Ltd. and, of course, Microsoft.
The battle is now for the large corporation IT management, where Microsoft has been supreme. This move, companies with Google's move to provide productivity software elements that compete with Microsoft Office and Microsoft's attempt to steal from Google's internet advertising revenues by buying Aquantive means a battle on many fronts is brewing.
9:30:19 PM 
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