neo1980 Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 SAN FRANCISCO (01/21/2003) - Microsoft Corp. has agreed to acquire PlaceWare Inc., a privately held company that provides Web conferencing services for businesses, the software maker said Tuesday. Microsoft will use the acquisition to start a new business unit that will develop products and technologies that let workers collaborate in real time over the Internet, the company said in a statement. The unit will be part of Microsoft's Information Worker group, which makes the Office applications suite. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2003. Financial terms and other details were not disclosed. Based in Mountain View, California, PlaceWare offers services that let businesses conduct real-time, interactive presentations and meetings over the Internet. Its customers include American Express Co., Johnson & Johnson and Cisco Systems Inc., according to information on its Web site. Microsoft will combine PlaceWare's assets with some of its own to develop new online conferencing technologies. It will share some of them with industry partners, allowing them to build custom business offerings that use real-time collaboration capabilities, Microsoft said. The goal is to boost the productivity of what Microsoft calls "information workers." Giga Information Group Inc. analyst Rob Enderle characterized the technology behind PlaceWare's service as "the big brother to NetMeeting," Microsoft's existing online collaboration software offered with Windows 2000. While NetMeeting only works well for groups of five or six people, according to Enderle, PlaceWare's software can scale up to support hundreds or even thousands of users, he said. Microsoft will likely include some of PlaceWare's technology in future versions of Office applications such as PowerPoint, allowing workers to collaborate over the Internet while they work, Enderle predicted. Further out, he said, Microsoft will likely combine some of PlaceWare's collaborative capabilities with server products such as Microsoft Exchange. "It's something Microsoft didn't have and that they felt they needed to fill out their portfolio," he said. Microsoft representatives weren't available Tuesday to discuss the company's plans in any detail. http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/0...ace.xml?s=IDGNS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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