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Cisco Gets Conversant with Microsoft Office via Versly Acquisition


| Aug 31, 2011 | Collaboration Platforms
| Analyst: Brad Shimmin

Event Summary

August 29, 2011 - Cisco announced that it has acquired privately-held Versly. Based in San Francisco, Versly integrates collaboration capabilities via a plug-in into Microsoft Office applications, purporting to simplify the way people work by enabling more effective collaboration around content in documents, spreadsheets, presentations and email.

Quick Take

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on Cisco's announced acquisition of privately held collaboration tools vendor Versly, because this transaction promises a positive infusion of beneficial technologies and engineering-savvy leadership that will help Cisco better recommend its collaboration portfolio, particularly with customers steeped in Microsoft's Office productivity suite.

• Vendor Importance: High to Cisco, because this acquisition reaffirms the vendor's commitment to the enterprise collaboration marketplace - a position that was appreciably undermined this spring when Cisco closed down its cloud-born e-mail service, WebEx Mail. This acquisition will positively influence a large number of Cisco products in the future (including WebEx, Jabber and Quad), setting the stage for a more unified product strategy from Cisco that prioritizes enterprise productivity across both collaboration and communication.

• Market Impact: Low on the enterprise collaboration platform marketplace, because the Versly acquisition does not give Cisco an established customer base or even a shipping product. It also does not allow Cisco to penetrate new market opportunities. While the technologies and delivery mechanism used by Versly's beta product will encourage rapid integration with Cisco products, Cisco will need to alter Quad, WebEx and Jabber significantly to accommodate the paradigm of collaborative document editing. Moreover, the outcome of this integration - the ability to use Microsoft Office within the context of Cisco products - will not create any new market opportunities for Cisco. The outcome is a portfolio that is simply better equipped to support Microsoft environments.


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Cisco Announces Acquisition of Versly

SAN JOSE, Calif. – August 29, 2011 – Cisco today announced that it has acquired privately-held Versly. Based in San Francisco, Versly integrates collaboration capabilities via a plug-in into Microsoft Office applications, simplifying the way people work by enabling more effective collaboration around content in documents, spreadsheets, presentations and email.

“Collaboration is a top priority at Cisco. With this acquisition we’re enhancing our collaboration offerings and improving the user experience by integrating social technologies within the business applications individuals and teams use at work,” said Murali Sitaram, vice president and general manager, Collaboration Software Group (CSG), Cisco. “Furthermore, the integration with Versly will drive productivity improvements for organizations and their knowledge workers, many of whom are among the 600 million Microsoft Office users.”

Collaboration is one of Cisco’s five company priorities and represents what Cisco believes to be a total addressable market of $45 billion. The acquisition will provide more opportunity for Cisco partners to provide enhanced collaboration solutions to customers. Versly’s software will be integrated into a variety of Cisco’s collaboration offerings including Cisco Quad, Cisco Jabber and Cisco WebEx. For example, users will be able to receive automatic notifications within Cisco Quad when the content of a document has changed, escalate from simply reviewing a document to an instant messaging session through Cisco Jabber, or initiate a web conferencing session from a presentation through Cisco WebEx.

“With this acquisition we are gaining strong talent and innovative technology that builds on Cisco’s successful collaboration platform,” said Ned Hooper, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Cisco. “We continue to expand our collaboration architecture to change the way businesses work.”

Upon the close of the acquisition, Versly employees will be integrated into Cisco CSG. Financial terms of the transaction are undisclosed.