Google buys Toronto startup PushLife

Google has bought Toronto-based PushLife Inc., a company that makes apps that enable non-Apple mobile phones to play, organize, share and buy music easily.

On its website, PushLife said it was "pleased to announce" the acquisition at a time when it is focusing more on how its apps look and on making them easier to use.

"And as Google is driving innovation on the mobile web across a variety of areas, we thought joining the company would be a perfect fit," the statement said.

Google Canada spokeswoman Wendy Rozeluk said in a statement Monday that Google is happy to welcome the PushLife team to its office in downtown Kitchener.

"We believe that the PushLife team's deep understanding of immersive applications and user interface design will help us build innovative mobile products," she added.

According to the technology website TechVibes, the company announced in September that it would be expanding to 30 people.

The purchase was first mentioned Friday afternoon on Twitter by Chango Inc., a technology startup that shares office space with PushLife and is backed by the same venture capital firm, Mantella Venture Partners. Chango congratulated PushLife on "their exit to the big G."

According to the website Startup North, Google paid $25 million for PushLife, which was founded in 2008 by CEO Ray Reddy. Reddy studied computer science and business at the University of Waterloo and worked in corporate development at Research in Motion before starting PushLife.

The company's software enables phones running BlackBerry or Android platforms to sync with iTunes and Windows Media Player libraries on a computer. That gives them iPhone-like abilities to organize, share and buy music.

The software launched as a free app in the U.K. in partnership with Virgin Media in December. According to PushLife's website, it had been scheduled to launch in the U.S. in January. A beta version of PushLife's BlackBerry app launched in March.

The app also recommends songs, brings together extras such as artist bios and images, and allows customers to share their music through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Google has long been rumoured to be on the verge of launching its own Android-compatible music streaming service. Technology news site cnet reported in late March that Google had begun testing Google Music internally, suggesting it would launch soon.