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Will Microsoft Buy Citrix?

According to Microsoft insiders, Forbes speculates that Microsoft might eventually buy Citrix, a market cap of $6.4 billion
By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
January 22, 2008 09:15 AM EST
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 69,844

Microsoft and Citrix Systems announced an expanded alliance to deliver a comprehensive set of virtualization solutions to address the desktop and server virtualization needs of customers. The two companies will work together to deliver and market joint virtualization solutions with Windows Server 2008 to help customers achieve a flexible and dynamic client computing infrastructure.

Microsoft hasn’t disclosed what it paid for the venture-backed start-up and its compression technology though one analyst took a shot and figured it was less than $100 million. Calista is backed by Greylock Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners and quotes IDC predicting desktops using virtualized client computing will hit around 40 million seats by 2011.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has also tightened the screws on its axis with its old friend Citrix, which is now supposed to develop a tool that blithely transfers VMs between the XenSource’s XenServer and Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V for the sake of interoperability.

A test version of the tool is due next quarter and the final version when Hyper-V ships.

Of course VMware already does this via a free utility.

But Microsoft and Citrix are also supposed to co-market widgetry based on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Optimized Desktop extended, they said, with the XenDesktop and Citrix’ Presentation Server.

However unlikely, according to Microsoft insiders, Forbes speculates that Microsoft might eventually buy Citrix, which currently has a market cap of $6.4 billion.

Published January 22, 2008 – Reads 69,844
Copyright © 2008 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is President & COO of Cloud Expo, Inc. and Conference Chair of the worldwide Cloud Expo series. He appears regularly at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of Cloud Expo's "Power Panels" on SYS-CON.TV.

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Most Recent Comments
JamesB 02/15/08 07:39:24 PM EST

Microsoft do not need to buy Citrix as they partner so well together. The only reason they would want Citrix is because of Xen and they are better dealing with anything OSS by proxy. XenServer and Hyper-V will work together. VMware could start looking horribly proprietary and expensive sometime soon. VMware is good for now but in my opinion it is a stack of cards built on yesterdays technology and will be the next Netscape, Novell and Realplayer in terms of market leadership.
freckling@ 02/01/08 03:18:56 PM EST

You can get a lot more info about Citrix integration into Server 2008 at the Heroes Happen Here launch events.

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Fred Reckling
Microsoft Grassroots Manager
http://www.microsoft.com/2008jointlaunch/
Brian Madden 01/23/08 05:43:39 PM EST

"Forbes" did not speculate that Microsoft might buy Citrix. Instead, they published an article which included a quote from an industry analyst that said Microsoft might try to buy Citrix, among other options. There's a big difference there!