Behind the Citrix ExpertCity buy

While details are scarce and might change pending the closing of the deal next month, Citrix will create a new division to offer GoToMyPC and ExpertCity’s GoToAssist troubleshooting product.

Perception is a funny thing. Despite its success selling remote desktop access to individual users, ExpertCity has always itched to sell to big businesses. But because the GoToMyPC service is easy for non-technical users to install, IT has had trouble controlling its use.

Yet, it’s GoToMyPC’s simplicity, ExpertCity’s Web roots, and the popularity with consumers that Citrix Systems – greatly respected by big firms – has envied. It turns out Citrix has long wanted to sell remote access to individual users, small businesses and the like. A week after my story ran last December (https://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/news/2003/1215netlead.html), Citrix announced it would acquire ExpertCity for $225 million (https://www.nwfusion.com/net.worker/news/2003/1218citgo.html) in cash and stock.

“We no longer want to be thought of as a server-based computing company, or a thin client/server computing company, or remote Windows,” says David Jones, Citrix senior vice president of corporate development. “Coming from Apple, I love GoToMyPC’s simplicity. When I do a demo of the Citrix Metaframe Access Suite, it takes time. It’s not inherently terribly simple. But when I show my friends – many of whom are lawyers and financial people – how GoToMyPC works, it’s like cash or credit card; they want it immediately.”

While details are scarce and might change pending the closing of the deal next month, Jones says Citrix will create a new division to offer GoToMyPC and ExpertCity’s GoToAssist troubleshooting product. The new division will be separate, with management team intact, but the ExpertCity name likely will disappear. The ExpertCity folks, led by ExpertCity CEO Andreas von Blottnitz, will continue to sell to their existing markets and add new features, including Lightweight Directory Access Protocol support; and Citrix will offer those products to enterprise customers.

“We’ll get involved with them on an as-needed or as-obvious basis where we genuinely think we can help, rather than suck them into the vortex of a Citrix-centrix view that isn’t necessarily right for everything they do,” Jones says. Citrix will give ExpertCity access to its enterprise customers and partners, and ExpertCity will provide Citrix with a well-rounded set of products.

Jones says Citrix executives are discussing technology “synergies” in areas like security, and the possibility of upgrading customers from one system to another.

Today, Citrix has about 130,000 customers worldwide and has sold about 14 million concurrent-user licenses of Metaframe. Even so, the company is in only about 10% of enterprise companies, typically around PeopleSoft or SAP deployments.

“We think a lot of those people would like different ways to do remote access in different circumstances,” Jones says. “Adding this service is going to strengthen our foothold as the access infrastructure vendor they work with.”