Search engine giant Google Inc. announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Postini.

Postini is the global leader in on-demand communications security, compliance and productivity solutions for email, instant messaging, and the web serving more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users worldwide. Postini’s services of archiving, encryption etc. can be used to protect a company’s email, instant messaging, and other web-based communications.

The agreement terms speak of Google acquiring Postini for $625 million in cash, subject to working capital and other adjustments and 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.

Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Google quoted, “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”

Today’s main concern is protection and on-premise time consuming and expensive solutions which would be mainly looked into and dealt with in this acquisition.

The very popular Google applications like the Gmail, Talk, Spreadsheets, calendar and Personal Start Page has been adopted by more than 100,000 businesses already. The main new added Postini solutions will include Email Security, IM Security, Web Security, Message Archiving, Message Encryption, and Policy-enforced TLS.

The Vice President and General Manager, Google Enterprise, Dave Girouard adds saying that “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.”

This statement is further supported by the add on quotes of Quentin Gallivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Postini who says “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,”

While the solutions from Postini gets a further backing from Scott Petry, Founder, Chief Technical Officer, and Executive Vice President of Product Development at Postini who says “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,”

Google will continue to support Postini customers and invest in Postini products. So adding Postini, seems to have further boosted the application solutions scenario by the already speedily rising search engine giant Google.

Via: Blogoscoped