Microsoft buys PlaceWare, bids to shake up conferencing market

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Microsoft’s current collaboration tools include Exchange Server and Exchange Conferencing Server as part of its real-time collaboration offerings. It also has Messenger in Windows XP that offers instant messaging and options to add voice and video for use with other XP desktops.

Microsoft plans to release later this year a set of real-time technologies code-named Greenwich that will become part of Windows Server 2003 and include instant messaging, conferencing, voice and video.

Those offerings overlap with PlaceWare, which just last fall introduced its first software for deployment on corporate networks called On-Site Solution. Zaragoza said the details are still being worked out as to the future of that product and how PlaceWare will fit in with Microsoft’s .Net Web services initiative.

He did say the company would offer a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that will allow software developers to extend the conferencing platform Microsoft is trying to build.

“Today we have XML-based APIs and we will look to further that through the use of Web services standards,” says Jennifer Callison, senior director of product marketing for PlaceWare.

Microsoft said it expects the acquisition to close sometime in the middle of this year.