SAN FRANCISCO - Internet giant Yahoo Inc revealed on Monday that it has agreed to acquire email and collaboration service provider Zimbra in a deal worth $350 million.
It is expected that the acquisition will help Yahoo expand its presence in the e-mail sphere and enable it to reach out to universities and businesses. Zimbra offers some exciting features that include AJAX-based e-mail, calendar, and contact management features.
“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."
Yang added that Zimbra's offering will also enable Yahoo to reach out to large ISPs as well.
Zimbra will now be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yahoo Inc and the Zimbra team will move to Yahoo's Sunnyvale premises. Zimbra co-founder and CEO Satish Dharamaraj will continue in that post as of now, Yahoo announced.
“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,” Dharamaraj said. “With Yahoo!'s ad and content network, the possibilities for Zimlets and other applications are endless.”
Yahoo said the deal was subject to the usual regulatory approval, but expects to close it out in the fourth quarter of the current year.
