Cisco to Buy Jabber
Cisco plans to acquire enterprise instant messaging provider, Jabber, for an undisclosed sum. Jabber's IM technology is based on the open-source XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) standard. The acquisition will of course better position Cisco in the unified communications space against the likes of Microsoft, IBM, and possibly Google.
A Cisco continues to market their unique value proposition: the ability to deliver both hosted and on-premise collaboration applications with the Cisco Intelligent Network at the core, the plan is to integrate Jabber into Cisco's on-premise unified communications suite and also into is cloud-based WebEx Connect application which was officially launch in late- September.
Because Jabber is built on XMPP, it enables a Jabber user to communicate across many different devices or applications such as MSFT Office Communications Server, IBM SameTime, AOL AIM, GoogleTalk, and Yahoo IM.
The Jabber team will join the Cisco Collaboration Software Group ie, WebEx.
Other recent Cisco Acquisitions:
- WebEx: #1 web conferencing provider in the world
- IronPort: messaging security software provider
- Securent: security software maker
- PostPath: email storage provider
