Cisco's (CSCO) acquisition engine rolls on: Its latest buy is Jabber, a Denver-based company that makes enterprise Instant messaging and "presence" software -- the ability to tell if your coworkers are online, at their desk, on their phone, out to lunch, napping, in a meeting, etc.
Cisco -- whose own employees are still in the dark ages, using IBM's SameTime for instant messaging -- says it'll work Jabber's products into many of its platforms, like its WebEx collaboration/meeting software and its "unified communications" platform -- the combination of office phones/IM/chat/videoconferencing/etc. that many companies, including Microsoft (MSFT), Nortel (NT), and Avaya are trying to sell.
This is a tuck-in for Cisco's part -- the purchase amount wasn't disclosed, so it can't be significant. But we're still not sure that normal office workers are ready to buy into "unified communications," "presence," and other buzzwords any time soon -- instead of using the phone like they're used to using, and the IM and chat services they're already satisfied with.
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