DALLAS, July 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Telligent, a market leader in enterprise social software, today announced that it has acquired from VMware the assets of Zimbra, a leading messaging and collaboration solution. Upon closing, Telligent and Zimbra will merge to form Zimbra, a new software company offering a unified social collaboration suite. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Zimbra, which will receive investments from Intel Capital, NXT Capital Venture Finance, BDCA, Hall Financial Group and VMware, will offer the first, unified social collaboration suite built for the post-PC era. By combining Zimbra’s comprehensive messaging and collaboration solutions with Telligent’s social community, collaboration and analytics software, the new company will enable customers to maximize productivity, innovation and customer experience.

The acquisition will accelerate the growth and leadership of the combined company, enhancing the value proposition for customers and partners of both Zimbra and Telligent. The company will be led by an integrated management team under the leadership of Patrick Brandt, chief executive officer of Telligent.

“This acquisition is a reflection of how people collaborate in today’s post-PC era,” said Patrick Brandt, chief executive officer, Telligent. “Zimbra enables traditional collaboration through features such as email, calendar sharing and address books, while Telligent supports real-time collaboration via chat, social networking, online communities and more. The combination of the two will enable companies to easily share documents and ideas instantly, providing true unified collaboration.”

The dramatic increase in business and consumer use of mobile and tablet devices, along with the increased use of social technologies, is causing an evolution in how businesses operate and how employees interact. Gartner estimates that “by 2016, 50% of large organizations will have internal Facebook-like social networks – 30% of these will be considered as essential as email/telephones are today.” (1) And, according to Gartner, “already, over 60% of workers report using a personal device at least once a day in their work; 44% use a personal smartphone in their job.” (2)

Brandt says the acquisition presents an opportunity to return Zimbra to its roots as an independent collaboration software leader with a vibrant open source community.

“Our innovative heritage, vibrant partner programs and commitment to being open make Zimbra and Telligent a great fit,” explained Brandt. “We are both highly committed to helping our customers collaborate. For organizations of all types, the combination of Telligent and Zimbra will satisfy the need for an affordable, integrated and easy-to-deploy solution that embeds social into employee and customer communication.”

“As we focus on the software-defined data center, hybrid cloud and end-user computing opportunities ahead, it was important for us to find a great fit for Zimbra’s people, customers and partners, and we found it with Telligent,” said Carl Eschenbach, president and chief operating officer, VMware. “Given its focus and complementary technology, Telligent is ideally suited to enable continued growth for Zimbra. We are confident that we will provide a smooth transition for customers and partners and that they will be in good hands with seamless product support, further technology innovation and additional go-to-market investments. We also look forward to a strategic partnership with the new Zimbra to help ensure long-term continuity for our customers and partners.”

Zimbra is an enterprise-class email, calendar and collaboration solution, built for the cloud – public, private and hybrid. Telligent is a leader in enterprise social software for customer support, digital marketing and employee collaboration. Under the Zimbra brand, Zimbra software will continue to be made available on premise and in the cloud through the company and its partners. The combined company will have a global base of more than 5,000 customers and 400 partners; it will maintain its worldwide presence, with offices in Dallas, Palo Alto, Tokyo, London and Pune, India.

(1) Gartner “Predicts 2013: Social and Collaboration Go Deeper and Wider” by Jeffrey Mann, Tom Austin, Nikos Drakos Carol Rozwell, Andrew Walls, November 28, 2012.

(2) Gartner “Bring Your Own Device: The Facts and the Future” by David A. Willis, April 11, 2013.

About Telligent
Telligent powers online communities and enterprise social networks that are essential to business. Global brands, including Cadbury, Dell, Investec, Microsoft, Oxfam, Rackspace, Sitecore and Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, trust Telligent to transform their business with social. Telligent software helps companies empower their customers, employees and partners with social collaboration tools that drive real business value: higher sales, lower costs and bigger ideas. The commitment to customer excellence is matched only by a dedication to community service and a people-first philosophy that defines Telligent’s brand promise. For more information, visit www.Telligent.com or connect with the company on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Zimbra
VMware Zimbra is a robust messaging and collaboration solution designed for the post-PC era. Built on the power of VMware’s virtualization and cloud expertise, Zimbra simplifies IT and sets the standard for web and cloud-based collaboration with a smarter mailbox that enables users to connect to their personal clouds. Simplified management, advanced mobility and private and public cloud options make Zimbra, with more than 85 million paid mailboxes, the preferred solution for large and small businesses, service providers, government and educational institutions worldwide.

VMware is a registered trademark of VMware, Inc .in the United States and other jurisdictions. The use of the word “partner” or “partnership” does not imply a legal partnership between VMware and any other company.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Megan Yunker
myunker@telligent.com
+1 (972) 407 0688

Amy Power
amy@powerpublicrelations.com
+1 (214) 693 2146

Kate Hall
kate@powerpublicrelations.com
+1 (318) 564 5442

SOURCE Telligent