Enterprise collaboration gets interesting with rumor

24.09.2009
"It's like what Outlook should have been, but on the Web." That's how Satish Dharmaraj described Zimbra, a corporate-oriented email and collaboration service he founded in 2003, to BoomTown's Kara Swisher shortly after it was bought by Yahoo. But that was Yahoo under Jerry Yang. While the $350 million Zimbra acquisition seemed like a good idea to Yang in early 2008, under the company's new CEO, Carol Bartz, every one of Yahoo's services is under the microscope to see whether it's a good fit and can help drive profitability -- or if it needs to be shut down or sold off. Zimbra is surely not considered one of "wall of shame" services, but, by PaidContent.org, "it doesn't fit with Yahoo's consumer-centric focus."

Swisher's well-connected sources at Yahoo now . Who might be interested in a Web-based Outlook alternative? Google seems like an obvious choice, but after witnessing , we have to ask: What about Microsoft itself? Outlook Web Access doesn't get much attention () these days, and the fresher Zimbra interface and functionality may be an attractive alternative.

Sources and research: Zimbra.com, AllThingsD.com, PaidContent.org, The Industry Standard, Forrest Sheng Bao/Engineering Our Dreams, Cnet.com