Cisco Announces Plans to Acquire PostPath

Cisco (News - Alert) has announced that it intends to acquire privately held PostPath Inc., a provider of innovative e-mail and calendaring software. This move is expected to build upon the company’s commitment to provide a comprehensive collaboration portfolio.

PostPath is based in Mountain View, California, with additional development operations in Sofia, Bulgaria, and is expected to enhance the existing e-mail and calendaring capabilities of Cisco’s WebEx Connect collaboration platform.

 

Adaptive collaboration is considered to be critical to creating and sustaining a competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced business environment. Cisco will be able to rely on PostPath software to extend the e-mail and calendar functionality of its flexible software-as-a-service (SaaS (News - Alert))-based collaborative platform.

 

Cisco’s SaaS platform includes instant messaging, voice, video, data, document management and Web 2.0 applications. The combination of the two is expected to enable customers to use collaboration to accelerate business processes, within and between businesses.

"The acquisition of PostPath complements our strategy to develop an integrated collaboration platform designed for how we work today and into the future, providing real productivity gains and a more satisfying user experience," said Doug Dennerline, Cisco senior vice president, Collaboration Software Group, in a Wednesday statement.

"Our 'cloud-based' delivery model offers our customers rapid deployment and compelling economics."

PostPath offers a Linux-based e-mail, calendaring and collaboration solution. This solution is interoperable with many other e-mail solutions and provides a browser-independent AJAX Web client. PostPath’s software is also compatible with a variety of mobile clients.

Offering high security and scalability, PostPath’s software incorporates innovative Web 2.0 architectures in order to ensure it meets the requirements of large enterprises and small businesses alike to provide Cisco customers with a next-generation user experience.

This planned acquisition builds on Cisco’s “build, buy and partner” innovation strategy put in place to move quickly into new markets and capture key market transitions.

Beyond internal software innovations, Cisco also actively employs investments in and acquisitions of, other companies to support its software strategy; recent purchases include industry leaders WebEx, IronPort and Securent.

Cisco is taking a strategy approach to expansion and greater market share by seeking to acquire companies and solutions that already have a strong standing in their respective areas. Such an approach ensures that the company can benefit from proven performance and incorporate solutions into its portfolio that enhance its current offerings and build its value perception in the eyes of the customer.

The terms of the agreement dictate that Cisco will pay approximately $215 million in exchange for all shares of PostPath. The transaction will be accounted for in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to be complete in Cisco's first quarter of fiscal year 2009.

Once the transaction is complete, PostPath employees will become part of the Cisco Collaboration Software Group (CSG).