Yahoo: I Zimbra

Yahoo is paying a ton of money for the Zimbra collaboration/email service: $350mm, to be exact. That’s $39 bucks a mailbox, if you divide Zimbra’s 9mm mailboxes by the acquisition price. Yow. I bet that is one hell of a multiple on revenues or profits, as Zimbra, which was featured in the Web 2 Launchpad in 2005 (scroll to bottom), probably isn’t making money yet, and if it is, most likely is not making profits anywhere close to the traditional multiples software companies receive in buyouts. But this is not about traditional multiples, is it? It’s about 3D future chess. And Yahoo clearly must see some leverage here. And/or, it’s buying its way to the table in a market Microsoft owns (Exchange) and Google is moving into (collaboration suites). Benchmark, Accel, and Redpoint be happy investors, me think. And congrats to Satish and his team!