Search engine and web services firm Yahoo! has announced that it is to acquire email and collaboration software provider Zimbra in a deal worth about $350 million.Zimbra's product range consists of email, calendar and contact management applications based on AJAX and built on an open platform.
Yahoo! will look to take advantage of Zimbra's ISP partnerships and boost its offerings to universities and businesses by allowing them to use their domain to host on and offsite email services, it said.
The deal, which is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2007 subject to approval, represents an intensifying focus on email as a growth area for Yahoo! and is expected to boost the company's core email services as a result, according to chief executive Jerry Yang.
Brad Garlinghouse, senior vice president of communications and communities for Yahoo!, added: "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 webmail."
The acquisition comes three weeks after Yahoo! enhanced its email offering to allow users to send free text messages to mobile phones and instant messages to users of Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger from their accounts.
Other elements such as speed and performance were also boosted in the revamp, but the firm still offers its Yahoo! Mail Classic interface to those who prefer the older version.
