Cisco announced on November 3 that it completed the acquisition of Jabber, an instant messaging and presence provider based in Denver. Jabber is not Cisco's first acquisition in the messaging/collaboration space. Recall that Cisco purchased the conferencing platform WebEx 18 months ago, and in September it purchased PostPath, the Linux-based email and calendaring platform. The purchase price and terms of the Jabber acquisition were not disclosed.
By acquiring Jabber, Cisco gains the ability to connect with all popular instant message services, such as AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo. Cisco's switches and routers can now send alerts and make it easy for admins to get alerts from machines, same as IM. Cisco can also sell companywide IM setups that are closely tied to Cisco network gear for security and monitoring. And finally, we expect to see Jabber's instant messaging integrate with PostPath's features to compete with Microsoft.
Jabber fits nicely with Cisco's strategy to move beyond hardware by offering companies collaboration built right into the network.
... Bob Spurzem