At the rate Google is going, if you have a small, innovative Web services business, you'd better nail it down, unless you want to become part of the Don't-Be-Evil-Empire. The latest is Canadian company Pushlife.com, a company that allows users to share digital content across multiple devices. Pushlife was founded and fronted by Ray Reddy, a former Research in Motion employee, in 2008.
PC World writes that this acquisition will give Google content synchronization know-how and technology, and a company that is already familiar with its Android smartphone operating system. PushLife's software automatically synchronizes content on a phone with that stored on a computer in iTunes or Windows Media Player, according to a FAQ posted on PushLife's Web site, where a notice is posted that says the company is “pleased to announce that we've been acquired by Google!”
Financial details were sketchy: a number of $25 million was tossed around, but it wasn't clear if that was in U.S. or Canadian dollars. Existing Pushlife staff will reportedly join Google's engineering team in Canada. It will discontinue its own synchronization service, it said. Except for the message about being pleased to join Google, Pushlife's own website was down this morning.
PushLife said there is a lot more to do in the mobile space, including “improving the way applications look and making them easier to use.”
Google isn't yet saying what the acquisition will mean to Google services. However, the search giant may soon have plenty of content for phone and PC users to sync, as according to numerous reports it is close to launching its own music sales service, says PC World.
Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TechZone360. To read more of Tracey's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Janice McDuffee
