MS offering to buy Yahoo ???

[dijichi2]

I renewed my NE license this week without a seconds hesitation. The more commercial customer contracts Zimbra has, and the longer they are, makes it more difficult for M$, Yahoo or any other potential overlord to kill the product. Contracts must be honoured.

[gmsmith]

I have been silent, but after some of these recent posts I feel the need to chime in.

By not installing Zimbra (be it the OpenSource or NE) some showing indirectly showing how much power Microsoft has over all of us. They can make an unsolicited bid for Yahoo and it shakes this community so much they they don't install Zimbra. In my opinion the very best thing we can do to keep our movement going is to keep installing, keep upgrading, keep active.

Like Satish said, "The Zimbra movement is better than any one company." The movement is you and me.

By choosing to not install it plays right into what they want....don't use Zimbra. But all of us who use it, work with it, develop with it, and those who are evaluating know it is the best alternative to Exchange out there.

As an HSP/VAR, we have actually seen a marked increase in inquiries for new licensing/hosted seats since the bid went public. And our larger customers have been re-committing to Zimbra.

Lets keep this movement going strong...install more Zimbra!

[Mike Scholes]

If it were as simple as that then I would agree, the fact is however that there are consequences for IT admin staff. If I ran my own company of a few employees and go with Zimbra NE and it alls goes to MS then I could change products and I've only lost/risked my money. I work however for a much larger organisation and if I recommend Zimbra and MS kills it then it could be my job I loose. I have a child and a mortgage as I'm sure other people on this forum and Zimbra employees have so the relaxed "wait and see" attitude doesn't cut it.

I'm happy with the statement by the CEO that suggests the open source version is pretty safe so I am pursuing this route. But we all know that Zimbra needs to earn money and to keep the product going we need to pay for it.

I posted a question earlier.

Originally Posted by Mike Scholes

2) If MS do end up buying Yahoo Could they kill the proprietary parts of the NE version of Zimbra, yes or no?

If MS can't kill Zimbra NE then Zimbra should make that clear, it's a no-brainer, they have everything to gain including my financial commitment. So why don't they say that? I can only assume the answer is silently "yes, MS could kill Zimbra NE". There are lots of posts saying "buy it, keep it going" but what we need to hear is "buy it, keep it going, MS can't kill it".

I for one will put my company's money were your mouth is and I think that's a good deal.

[timothyalangorman]

Originally Posted by dijichi2

I renewed my NE license this week without a seconds hesitation. The more commercial customer contracts Zimbra has, and the longer they are, makes it more difficult for M$, Yahoo or any other potential overlord to kill the product. Contracts must be honoured.

Perhaps in theory or morally they do.... in the real corporate world.. NO, they do not. Damages need to be paid that will amount to peanuts in the world of M$.

[jpbuse]

Like everyone else here the thought of M$ having control of Zimbra is not a good thing. I'm still evaluating Zimbra for my company of 40 people. Its by far the best solution I've seen. Although the M$ buyout looms over my decision, I will most likely move forward with the FOSS version of Zimbra. I was planning to start with FOSS any way regardless of Ballmer. Worse worse case M$ deal goes through, they squash Zimbra dead, then I have to decide what to do. With only 40 users the transition won't be that difficult or painful to another solution.

If I was an institution with 1000s (even 100s) of accounts looking to move to Zimbra, I would most likely buy some time right now before making my decision to go with Zimbra. I believe Zimbra to be the best solution, however the decision goes beyond my support for Zimbra... its based solely on what is best for my company and my job security.

Long live Z.

[tgx]

This also clearly exhibits why MS fears GPL code. It makes it
impossible to embrace and extend...or kill off. IMHO Zimbra
should do the best thing and GPL the whole ball of wax.
The same people that are buying Zimbra now will also buy if it
is GPL. Some orgs need contracts, support and the like whether
the source is freely available or not. If Zimbra is to survive post
merger with MS they need to GPL the code now.
Tomorrow could be too late. One problem I see with badgeware
is that let's say that MS buys Zimbra. The license as it stands requires
these logos to remain. MS owns the logos too. So now any site displaying these logos can be sued for misuse of the logo...or extorted in some other fashion.

[dljordaneku]

I ran across this article today that said Yahoo was meeting today to discuss the offer.

eWeek story

dj

[fselendic]

Originally Posted by dljordaneku

I ran across this article today that said Yahoo was meeting today to discuss the offer.

eWeek story

dj

From what I could read last week about this deal, it seems to be leaning towards Yes decision. This just further confirms it.

Well, we'll see in next couple of days. Just hope Zimbra exit strategy is ready

[tgx]

I don't think there is much question as to if the deal goes through,
it's a matter of when. It's too good of a deal for Yahoo! to financially
pass up. Forget Google saving it there'd be anti-trust written all over that deal. I anticipate by end of next week that Yahoo! will have agreed to terms.
Then it will go through regulation hurdles, probably very few considering
that MS is so far in the hole compared to the big guy. If anything it might be considered anti-competitive if MS isn't allowed to buy Yahoo!. Basically if
there isn't a move on the license issue soon it will be too late. If all assets are frozen when the go word is given, Zimbra will end up like BeOS.

[John Norton]

Knowing this is a support form. I still wish to see the Ideas or answers for what I suggested in a early post. See below !!. Please, Please send this to your managers or upper management. It is your jobs! Do you think M$ is going to keep you after the merger, Thing again. review the activity from M$ past acquisitions... I have over 15 + years of messaging experience and worked with them all. If some one came to me and asked to built a enterprise messaging platform Zimbra would be the answer from a infrastructure this product is worth so much more then a death by Microsoft. Please tell the or send to the correct managements ( I would send it, but need the names at Yahoo that can understand what we looking for!) There is other money, that can be made if Yahoo had half the sense to see the opportunities. ( That may be asking these great educated business men too much, Like making the best of a business deal$$ for everyone.) See below from keeping a great product and respected invested Zimbra clients from hanging..

Old Posted Question ------------------------------------------------------

Seeing as Zimbra was just acquired by Yahoo. Was there a back out clause to buy or get the product back or resale it? This is usually added to protect customer base and commitments from issues just like the one Zimbra finds it customers in now!.

You know Microsoft will destroy the Zimbra product. It has the same base architecture model as Exchange and they will not what to support it, but try to get the current customers migrated to Exchange thus eliminating Zimbra R.I.P.

Zimbra / Yahoo management should look to sell the product as a condition of the merger if it happens. I would look to other large companies like IBM as they have been trying to find a alternate enterprise Email solution for their customer base. As many don't like Domino or are looking for something other then exchange. This is what the whole "WorkPlace" product offering was suppose to address but we all know it didn't work out well. They drop the messaging and other WorkPlace projects. ( Just too much time and money and not enough features). They do better acquiring technologies and integrate with their other products. Not to mention they support Open Source projects and love Linux and Java.

IBM could benefit from such a mature product and your client base would have long term support and relationships. Let face it! As you seen in the forum, it not going well and clients are worried. Best of all no one is going to buy them anytime soon. Look how long they had Lotus products or others. Just keeps on ticking...