Cisco talks Jabber into acquisition

Cisco is to acquire enterprise messaging firm Jabber

Cisco Systems has agreed to purchase open source instant messaging firm Jabber.

The company plans to use the Jabber messaging software within its WebEx Connect and Unified Communications packages.

Denver-based Jabber specialises in enterprise messaging software which supports products such as AIM, Microsoft Office Communications Server, IBM Sametime and IM software from Google and Yahoo.

Jabber will continue to function in its current offices as a member of Cisco's collaboration software group.

Cisco hopes that Jabber's adaptability will increase the appeal of its collaboration suite.

"With the acquisition of Jabber, we will be able to extend the reach of our current instant messaging service and expand the capabilities of our collaboration platform," said Doug Dennerlune, senior vice president of Cisco's collaboration software group.

"Our intention is to be the interoperability benchmark in the collaboration space."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cisco hopes to complete the transaction by the end of its second fiscal quarter in January.