Xandros acquires Scalix - Linux groupware provider

Stan Beer
Thursday, 19 July 2007 14:44

Business IT - Open Source

Linux distro vendor Xandros has acquired Linux e-mail, calendaring and messaging company Scalix.

The amount or terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. According to Xandros, the acquisition represents another step in the fulfillment of Xandros' strategic vision for developing a complete Linux stack, including desktop, SMB and advanced enterprise servers, cross-platform management tools, and mission-critical IT infrastructure applications.

Scalix will continue to operate independently, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Xandros. It will also continue to provide fsupport for all of Scalix’s historical platforms: Red Hat, Novell, Xandros, and others. according to Xandos.

“This acquisition brings great advantages to Scalix customers,” said Glenn Winokur, CEO of Scalix. “The expanded Xandros-Scalix engineering and support team will provide a truly integrated messaging and calendaring 'appliance-style’ product with unmatched ease of installation and administration on both Xandros and all other supported Linux platforms. As a complementary addition to the Xandros product line, Scalix products will continue to be developed with the same vision and roadmap we've historically pursued, so future versions will continue to appear as seamless upgrades. Furthermore, customers will benefit from strengthened support and service offerings provided through a larger combined reseller and partner network. Finally, as a much larger company, with far greater resources, offices around the world, and additional unique technologies, Scalix will be able to expand and consolidate its leadership position as the premier Linux e-mail and calendaring company.”

“We are excited by this acquisition as Scalix has hundreds of corporate customers all over the world, a large following in the open source community, and a common vision of addressing interoperability needs in today’s multi-platform environments,” said Andreas Typaldos, CEO of Xandros. “In bringing together developers of powerful and intuitive Linux administration, deployment, and management tools from Xandros, with those who created the premier Linux e-mail, calendaring and messaging solution from Scalix, we will create combined solutions that will ensure even faster adoption in the months and years to come by enterprises looking for Linux-based Exchange alternatives that Windows network administrators can easily deploy, without the need for Linux knowledge or expertise.

“The Scalix product will continue to be developed on all platform families supported by Scalix today. We will of course continue to promote the Xandros-Scalix bundled Server application that we developed with Scalix a year ago, but we will also immediately apply those enhanced Xandros deployment and management technologies, tools, and benefits to all of Scalix’s non-Xandros platforms as well. Xandros is already committed to having its powerful cross-platform BridgeWays management tools support all key non-Xandros Linux distributions and platforms, and the Scalix e-mail and calendaring product is a perfect fit for the Xandros BridgeWays strategy.”

According to Xandros, the tight integration of Scalix within the Xandros Server provides an all-in-one groupware solution that can be centrally administered through the remote, all-graphical Xandros Management Console. The combined solution provides business clients with scalable industrial strength world-class e-mail and calendaring, with choice for a wide array of e-mail rich clients, including Outlook, Thunderbird, the AJAX-based Scalix Web Access Client, as well as various popular wireless handheld devices.

Scalix products will retain their distinct product name and logo, in order to capitalize on the brand’s wide recognition for its enterprise-class messaging and calendaring solutions available on multiple Linux platforms.