Yahoo! drops Zimbra, VMware picks it up

Virtualization software maker VMWare has acquired Zimbra, a company that essentially provides a web-based alternative to Outlook.

Yahoo! purchased Zimbra a few years back and used the startup's technology to tweak Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Calendar. But Zimbra has always been a bit more enterprise-based than Yahoo!, so it wasn't exactly a perfect fit.

VMWare gets all of Zimbra's intellectual property, but Yahoo! will still be able to use the company's email and communication technology, so don't expect any major changes to Yahoo! Mail right away.

The acquisition brings together two big players in virtualization and cloud computing technology, which could lead to powerful new web apps. VMWare will continue to support Zimbra's existing products. But the company also plans to use Zimbra's technology to expand the software available for customers to deploy using the VMware vCloud ecosystem.

Tags: email, online office, OnlineOffice, virtualization, vmware, yahoo, zimbra