Google said Tuesday that it means to buy Norway's publicly traded VoIP codec house Global IP Solutions Holding AB (GIPS) for $68.2 million cash, a move that could put it in contention with Skype not to mention the telecom companies that are selling its phones.

The deal, which represents a 27.5% premium over GIPs' closing price Friday, will also give Google ownership of parts of the technology underlying the instant messaging systems used by Yahoo, AOL and Baidu. Global IP Solutions makes the real-time processing software for voice and video calls over the Internet, widgetry used by IBM's Lotus Sametime as well as Cisco's WebEx scheme under a shiny new deal.

Google already owns Gizmo5, a California VoIP start-up it bought late last year for a reported $30 million, and runs Google Talk and Google Voice. It also offers video and voice chat on Gmail.

Google hasn't said how it will use the stuff but it could use the widgetry on Google Apps. With the introduction of VideoEngine for Android last month GIPS made it possible for Android developers to integrate video conferencing and chat in their applications.

The New York Times suggests it could also be used to support the video in HTML5.

Holders of roughly half of GIPS stock have already signed off on the deal. Google's buyout offer expires around June 4.

GIPS, whose technology also corrects delays, jitter, noise and echoes, claims to be use on 800 million end-points. It has some 20 patents.