Yahoo! To Buy Collaboration Software Provider Zimbra for $350mn
IT News Online Staff
2007-09-18
Yahoo! Inc. announced that it will acquire Zimbra Inc., a provider of email and collaboration software for universities, businesses and service providers, for approximately $350 million.
"Our industry-leading communications products, including Yahoo! Mail, are critical to the future growth and success of Yahoo!," said Jerry Yang, chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. "Zimbra's tremendous talent and innovative technology will help to extend our core Mail offerings, further strengthening our strong leadership position in this space. Additionally, Zimbra's successful relationships with large ISPs are key as we expand our worldwide partner network and continue to focus on our commitment to being the partner of choice."
Yahoo! said the acquisition of Zimbra will help it to expand its presence in universities, businesses and through ISPs by enabling organizations to host email on or off premises with their own domain. Zimbra's offerings include rich, AJAX-based email, calendar and contact management features that can be used both on and offline. Its open platform enhances the user experience by enabling creative mash-ups called Zimlets that tie in valuable Web services to email, and can be tailored to fit the needs of every customer.
"We are excited to combine ourselves with one of the world's most successful Web mail services and extend Yahoo!'s credible brand and leadership in the email business to universities, businesses and ISPs globally," said Satish Dharmaraj, Zimbra co-founder and CEO. "With Yahoo!'s ad and content network, the possibilities for Zimlets and other applications are endless."
Yahoo! Mail celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and continues to be one of the world's most popular Web mail services with 250 million users worldwide. The service provides people with more ways to connect to their friends and online contacts and is fully integrated with Yahoo!'s many other popular services to make it easy to access all the Internet services people need.
"As an industry leader, we are constantly approached for different e-mail solutions," said Brad Garlinghouse, senior vice president, communications and communities, Yahoo! Inc. "With Zimbra, we will bring the security, reliability and anywhere access of Yahoo! Mail to people at school, work and home, further enhancing our leadership position in Web mail."
Following the acquisition, Zimbra will become a wholly-owned unit of Yahoo!. Satish Dharmaraj will continue to lead the Zimbra team based in Yahoo!'s Sunnyvale headquarters and will report to Brad Garlinghouse. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. It is expected that the transaction will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2007.
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