VMware is to buy Yahoo's Zimbra open source messaging business in order to expand its stake in the platform-as-a-service market.
Zimbra, bought by Yahoo in 2007, is an open source messaging platform popular on the Linux and Mac OS platforms and with universities and service providers. Yahoo offers both an on-premises and hosted version.
VMware will pay US$100 million (NZ$135 million) for Zimbra.
Chris Wolf, an analyst with the Burton Group, says the deal makes sense for VMware, which realises it needs to expand from its focus on virtualisation as competitors like Microsoft threaten to eat heavily into that market.