Cisco Systems Inc., aiming to further its push into the online conferencing market, said it will acquire instant-messaging start-up Jabber Inc. for an undisclosed amount.The San Jose, Calif., computer networking company is betting that business users will want the tools it is acquiring to work on, share and store files in a virtual "work room," where they can collaborate on projects and communicate over the Internet.
Cisco believes such tools, dubbed the "collaboration" market, can be a $34 billion industry. Other players in the market are Microsoft Corp. and International Business Machines Corp.
"Make no mistake, we are playing to win in the [collaboration space]," said John Chambers, Cisco's chief executive and chairman during the company's analyst day Tuesday.
Jabber adds instant-messaging and other communications technology to Cisco's fold. The Denver company's instant-messaging service operates on a range of devices, including mobile handsets and desktop computers.
Jabber's founders created technology used by Google Inc.'s Googletalk and Apple Inc.'s iChat instant-messaging applications.
By: Bobby White
Wall Street Journal; September 20, 2008
