The Street Buzz

The Zimbra Team is pleased to announce we have been acquired by Yahoo! (Public, NASDAQ:YHOO).

Yahoo! is acquiring Zimbra to extend its leadership and reach new customers in the business, education, and service provider markets across the globe. This major opportunity for Zimbra will accelerate our growth using Yahoo!’s worldwide reach, create a larger combined community, plus enable us to build even more powerful experiences together.

“The entire Yahoo! team is excited to embrace Zimbra’s customers, partners and community and I want to personally welcome them to the Yahoo! family,” said Brad Garlinghouse, senior vice president, communications and communities, Yahoo! Inc. “We are committed to building on Zimbra’s success and to investing in both Zimbra’s on-premise and SaaS product offerings.”

Yahoo! and Zimbra remain firmly committed to our partners, customers, and all the markets we are currently serving. Zimbra’s sales, support, and products are unaffected; the Zimbra Community will continue to play an integral role in Zimbra.

Yahoo! Announces Agreement to Acquire Zimbra

Acquisition of Innovative E-mail Company Bolsters Leadership in Communications;
Extends Expertise to Universities, Small and Medium-Sized Businesses and Service Provider Partners

Sunnyvale, Calif. – September 17, 2007 – Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Zimbra, Inc. (www.zimbra.com), a leader in next generation e-mail and collaboration software. Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo! will acquire Zimbra 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.”

The acquisition of Zimbra will help Yahoo! to expand its presence in universities, businesses and through ISPs by enabling organizations to host e-mail on or off premises with their own domain. Zimbra’s offerings include rich, AJAX-based e-mail, calendar, and contact management features that can be used both on and offline. Their open platform enhances the user experience by enabling creative mash-ups called Zimlets that tie in valuable Web services to e-mail, 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 e-mail 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 subsidiary 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.
About Yahoo!

Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo!’s mission is to connect people to their passions, their communities and the world’s knowledge. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
About Zimbra

Zimbra is a leading provider of collaboration software for universities, businesses and service providers. Zimbra’s rich AJAX interface is available on or offline to dramatically improve the collaboration experience. Zimbra is available on-premise or on-demand through our extensive hosted partner program.

Popularity: 3% [?]