Why is Google shy about Marratech acquisition?

On the same evening of the record quarterly earnings announcement, preceding a week which included the huge acquisition of DoubleClick (was DoubleClick a Smart Buy?), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) coyly announced the acquisition of Marratech's Video conferencing software on the Official Google Blog under the title: Collaborating with Marratech. No press release. No analyst call. No interviews. Just a simple announcement through a blog post by Google's VP of Engineering Douglas Merrill:

"As a company, we thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration. So we're excited about acquiring Marratech's video conferencing software, which will enable from-the-desktop participation for Googlers in videoconference meetings wherever there's an Internet connection.

We look forward to learning from the extraordinary ingenuity of Marratech's engineers as they focus on desktop conferencing research and development in Sweden, where they will continue to be located."

Why would Google do this? Why buy a company's video conferencing software when you are not going to go all out and talk about it? After all, Google is a key marketing innovator providing an advertising and search platform to tens of thousands of businessess worldwide. Why even put an update on the official blog afterwards that says: "To clarify some confusion, we acquired Marratech's software, not the company itself."

Contrast this particular Google acquisition with Cisco's acquisition of WebEx. Both Marratech and WebEx play in the same web collaboration and web conferencing market place. WebEx has over 2,000 employees; Marratech has 10, albeit a solid engineering team (as per Wikipedia). WebEx has industrial strength proven web conferencing and web collaboration technology used by thousands of corporations; Marratech has good technology that is used by tens of organizations.

For starters, Marratech has good software that include:
* High quality voice for groups with private audio feature
* Interactive group whiteboard including application and document sharing
* Multi party video

and provides support for:
* 256 bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) end-to-end encryption
* Support for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux on the client and server side.
* Support for bandwidth saving clusters
* Support for IP Unicast, IP Multicast or both
* Support for H.323 (dial in and out, E.164) and SIP
* H.264 video

Here are my top five reasons on why Google chose to acquire Marratech's video conferencing software and did not make a huge splash:

1. Google quite possibly entertained acquiring WebEx Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: WEBX), but did not go over the top as it did with DoubleClick, and essentially gave way to Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO). WebEx would have been a smart play for Google in the enterprise market.
2. Google then decided to simply acquire video conferencing technology that it can essentially mold and embed it deeply within the Enterprise applications and Desktop. Google thus was looking at acquiring technology fast and for a small price.
3. Google will likely integrate Marratech into Google Talk, Chat, Google Apps, Google Desktop, and other Google collaboration products in the future. Marratech may even provide a superior audio solution than what Google has today. Google is only buying the software; it is not clear on whether Google will create a new team of engineers to work on the new solution, or outsource the development to Marratech.
4. Google may provide "Live Video Conferencing" powered by Marratech as an add-on to YouTube customers. This could be huge. YouTube has been a runaway hit with on-demand Video; combine this with live Video conferencing, and suddenly, Google can be powering the world's Video conferencing solution through the Google network.
5. Google will possibly use Marratech as a launchpad in Sweden and create a larger technology presence in the future.