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Cisco To Buy Jabber

Posted by Soulskill on from the swallowed-whole dept.

Danny Rathjens writes "In the continuing trend of big companies buying out small companies with open source products, Cisco has announced that they are buying Jabber. The press release doesn't really talk about the open source aspect of Jabber, and Jabber's website doesn't mention the news yet. I'm sure the question many of us have is whether Jabber's open source status will be changed in any way due to the purchase." Reader Eddytorial had this to contribute: "eWEEK offers a good look into how Jabber's messaging client will fit into Cisco Systems' overall 'presence' strategy in its market wars with Avaya, Microsoft, Nortel, and others. Cisco, which already had a basic instant messaging option, but one that didn't scale for an enterprise nearly as well as Jabber's, has just about everything else in place." It's also worth noting that Cisco open-sourced Etch in recent months.

8 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing new for Cisco by Rayeth · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think Cisco's entire marketing strategy is to buy out companies of products they wish they had and then rebrand and sell them.

    Can I replace Chambers as the CEO?

    1. Re:Nothing new for Cisco by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think Cisco's entire marketing strategy is to buy out companies of products they wish they had and then rebrand and sell them.

      Although I don't think that it's the case here Cisco also has a history of buying the competition and discontinuing their products. Buyouts can be a way to increase your engineering staff.

    2. Re:Nothing new for Cisco by phillyclaude · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think Cisco's entire marketing strategy is to buy out companies of products they wish they had and then rebrand and sell them.

      Can I replace Chambers as the CEO?

      Cisco's done that along. pretty much every product line besides routers has been an acquisition

      --
      A computer without a Microsoft operating system is like a dog without bricks tied to its head
  2. Or.... by Starmengau · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I think the real question is not whether Jabber's open-source status will be impacted, but whether Cisco will try to be all redactive and decide that the open source licensing of current and previous versions of jabber (which for most people works perfectly well as it is) are unforkable and/or non-distributable.

    --
    Please help me pay for room & board.
  3. Cisco by Enderandrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cisco already provides phones, PBX, etc. and tools to mix your voicemail and e-mail into one system. Buying an IM company allows them to offer voicemail, e-mail, and IM on one platform. However they could have just used Jabber without buying it, unless they intend to end the open source licensing.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    1. Re:Cisco by gehrehmee · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or if they just wanted a good way to get engineers who know their way around a particular family of technology, and who have a successful name backing them up...

      --
      "You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help" -- Calvin
  4. When in doubt, fork off. by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You can always fork. It would be silly/stupid for Cisco to try to retroactively change licensing terms. Of course, it would not be the first stupid thing they had ever done... nevertheless, they are not known for such.

  5. Re:Jabber Inc by davolfman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or perhaps it gets them a few programmers who already know the ins and outs of said protocol and can now be added to projects creating an enterprise product from the system.