Cisco To Buy Jabber

Denver, CO (AHN) - Cisco Systems will buy open-source instant messaging company Jabber to boost its unified communications and collaboration portfolio.

In an undisclosed amount, Cisco announced Friday that it plans to deploy the Jabber messaging software to its WebEx Connect and Unified Communications.

Jabber's enterprise messaging software supports AOL AIM, Microsoft Office Communications Server, IBM Sametime and is compatible with instant messaging software from Gizmo, Google and Yahoo.

Some of Jabber's clients include AT&T, BT, EarthLink, FedEx, JP Morgan and AHN Media Corp.

The transaction is expected to close during the first half of 2009. Jabber's 50 employees will be integrated with Cisco's Collaboration Software Group.