MS offering to buy Yahoo ???

[nrc]

Originally Posted by dwmtractor

No multibillion-dollar acquisition happens overnight. Between SEC, other regulators, and all the other potential stakeholders, even if every Yahoo! stockholder said "yes" to Ballmer today, the whole thing would take months to button up.

I see this is as a real danger for Zimbra. Unless the people at Yahoo! take some proactive stance and do something to ensure Zimbra's future this could leave Zimbra in a state of uncertainty for six months to a year. That could seriously affect the momentum that Zimbra has been building over that last year as many new customers may be put on hold or driven away by the uncertainty.

Even a customer like us in the early stages of a migration plan has to have a serious discussion about whether we're comfortable proceeding.

[pikeman94]

On a completely unrelated note, Zimbra just announced their Perforce Cache (like an SVN) is open to the public now. ABOUT TIME!

Pikeman94

[riogd]

We are an NE customer having chosen Zimbra over other solutions. It is far too early to panic and make rush decisions and declarations, however I would like to answer the post saying that no one should worry because Zimbra is a "boutique" company/product only recently acquired by Yahoo!.

Put yourself in MS's shoes, and look at their past tendencies of copy/acquisition. MS is loosing existing and potential customers from Exchange to Zimbra because it is a product which offers a better solution with more options and choices to the customer. Would it not be in their best interest to stifle competition by making moves or choices to affect the viability of Zimbra in favor of the product they have invested so much into (Exchange/Outlook)?
We have all seen the reaction to ODF, a nice format guaranteeing the availability and accessibility of data through the future, giving the choice to the customer. This threatens the "monopoly by lack of choice" and the "lock in" by incompatibility. These are two of the primary things which helps MS stay profitable. Outlook is one of the few strongholds which keeps MS's foot in the door. With the popularity of Zimbra growing and OOo v3 coming around the corner with "Outlook functionality", it is vital for MS to keep customers tethered through any means possible.

Whether this is going to happen or not is of course unknown but just as it is too early to claim that it is what is happening, I would say it is far too early to say that it isn't a possibility or end goal.

In either case Zimbra and their customers are along for the ride. Let us all hope for a good one.

Cheers,

RioGD

[think0r]

At this point the license must be changed regardless of if MS succeeds in the take over. The idea of using a modified MPL license + requiring some branding such as ZPL seems seriously short sighted. I mean who do you think will own the Zimbra Logo after MS acquisition? It seems like you might as well just deleted the MPL part of the license and just simply stated who ever owns this logo has complete exclusive rights to our software.

Even if I'm just totally wrong about this point. It is obvious to me that there are serious licensing concerns here to be addressed for any potential clients of Zimbra. Most immediately having some way to continue development after being sold down the river.

[andydread]

At this point it might seem that its too late. The logo is married to the license and the license says the logo must stay where it is on every page. The problem here is that the logo is ... well trademarked and now Yahoo owns the trademark and if MS purchases yahoo then they will own the trademark. So I think even the Zimbra people will no longer have rights to their own code. this is very sad indeed and I agree short sighted. We are looking at a state wide deployment this year. We will definitely need a proper statement from Zimbra top brass before we deploy.

[dwmtractor]

Originally Posted by andydread

At this point it might seem that its too late. The logo is married to the license and the license says the logo must stay where it is on every page. The problem here is that the logo is ... well trademarked and now Yahoo owns the trademark and if MS purchases yahoo then they will own the trademark. So I think even the Zimbra people will no longer have rights to their own code. this is very sad indeed and I agree short sighted. We are looking at a state wide deployment this year. We will definitely need a proper statement from Zimbra top brass before we deploy.

I understand the concern here, but nothing is "too late." Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo, and while I feel just like the rest of you that 43 billion reasons to say "yes" are gonna be hard to ignore, the fat lady ain't singing just yet.

And whether Zimbra stands or falls (again, presuming a buyout goes through) will depend on a great deal more than just the branding question. Nothing says Yahoo can't spin Zimbra off before a presumed acquisition--at least nothing in the public release--unless, of course, some part of Microsoft's documents to Yahoo state that the Zimbra property is one of the deal-breaker products that has to be included or the deal is off.

I don't claim to have a crystal ball here, but as much as I am sure Microsoft would like to bury an obvious Exchange-killer, I strongly doubt that's the reason for their offer. They want the traffic, the brand, the email users, the IM users, the "portal" stuff to shore up their own MSN brand, I would guess. Getting a chance to kill off an Exchange competitor would certainly be attractive to them, but great as Zimbra is, I don't think it's billions attractive (yet).

So buck up, people. It's far too early to lose all hope!

Dan

[sf_basilix]

This can't be good. I can only imagine where Zimbra will be if Microsoft buys out Yahoo.

[danfluidmind]

Okay, someone has to be the first to ask. Since Yahoo! bought Zimbra, and Microsoft is about to buy Yahoo!, what is to become of Zimbra? I can't imagine Microsoft would want to keep Zimbra around. They hardly need something to replace Exchange.

Thoughts, anyone? (Preferably someone at Zimbra :-)

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by danfluidmind

Thoughts, anyone? (Preferably someone at Zimbra :-)

Nobody has any information yet, it's only just been announced that Microsoft is making an offer. When there's any information to share it will be posted in the forums and anything else is just speculation and a waste of time, it also distracts us from providing support for a great product - that's our primary goal.

[think0r]

Originally Posted by dwmtractor

So buck up, people. It's far too early to lose all hope!

Dan

While that sounds a lot like handing out milk in cookies approach to this problem the reality is that all the milk and cookies in the world isn't going to make the current licensing issue any better. It doesn't matter if MS buys Yahoo or not. The possibility of this is unacceptable to clients. Your current license exposes us to this risk of having all of our Zimbra implementations turned into bastardware. How could I possibly consult my clients to adopt Zimbra when it can so easily be bought up and shut down without the possibility of being taken over by the community?

Please reform your license ASAP, this is a most urgent issue that should be taken seriously, your client's are at risk.