Google Buys Postini Antispam Company

Google Inc. said Monday it would buy antispam company Postini Inc. of San Carlos, Calif., for $625 million in cash.

The deal, which takes Google further into the business software market, is expected to close by September, Google said.

Postini, whose technologies protect and manage e-mail, instant messaging and other Web-based communications, will become a wholly owned Google subsidiary.

Google will support Postini customers and invest in Postini products, the Mountain View, Calif., company said.

Microsoft Corp. bought Postini rival FrontBridge Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed amount two years ago and computer-security and information-management firm Symantec Corp. bought antispam software company Brightmail Inc. for more than $300 million in 2004.

Google has increasingly moved into the business software market, buying Silicon Valley startup Upstartle, maker of the Web-based Writely word processor, last fall and releasing Google Docs & Spreadsheets, a Web-based document and spreadsheet application letting users collaborate online.

Google also plans to release a product for presentations — based on technology designed by Tonic Systems Inc., which Google bought in April — as early as this summer.

Google said last Monday it agreed to buy GrandCentral Communications Inc., a startup that lets users manage telephone and voice mail services over the Web.