Google buys Postini for $625 mln to fend off Microsoft

Internet search phenomenon Google is buying a privately-held email security company in a cash deal worth USD 625 mln in order to challenge Microsoft’s business domination with Office.

Postini’s technology encrypts and archives e-mails and instant messages that could help dircet more companies to choose Google’s popular Gmail, that boasts some 10 mln users, and the package of services that include calendars and spreadsheets.

News reports suggest that over 100,000 businesses use the Google Apps software package and Postini’s 35,000 clients would be added to that.

This is Google’s is the third-biggest acquisition of recent, after the San Francisco-based company announcedm a deal to buy DoubleClick in April for USD 3.1 bln and do-it-yourself TV and amateur movie platform YouTube for USD 1.65 bln last November.