Microsoft acquires Groove

March 10 2005

Just got off the Microsoft press conference around the acquisition of Groove.

First, let me congratuate all involved.  Having gotten to know Ozzie a bit more in the last few months, I have tremendous respect for his vision and intellect.  Ray brings immediate credibility to the job, and I look forward to seeing his impact on Microsoft overall.

As for the market impact, I offer this not-for-quote-by-press observation:  Office is starting to look like an even bigger jigsaw puzzle.  Two more pieces of technology this week (Groove and Communicator) will add to the IT desktop management nightmares, integration issues, upgrade and patch problems.  Just when the industry had been rallying around contextual collaboration, Microsoft is going the other direction of different client interfaces, different data models, and different integration approaches.  This also seems to be acknowledgement, perhaps, that offline still matters, and that WinFS is too far away (if ever) to remedy that issue.

Going to be interesting to watch how this plays out.

Updated: If you happened by this posting via salon.com, please read my followup.

Ed Brill Cambridge, MA USA Category:  Microsoft  Add/View Comments [18]

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  1. 1  Duffbert http://www.twduff.com | 3/10/2005 11:33:18 AM

    While this does put a different slant on things, I'm not sure it's too earthshattering in the short term. How long has Microsoft been the driving investor in Groove? How long has Microsoft had access to Ray at any time? And what has that led to in terms of product integration? Not much.

    Now having them as part of the Microsoft-branded fold will most likely lead to additional development and integration into whatever package they want. Sort of like when IBM/Lotus acquired the companies for Sametime and then rebranded the underlying technology. I just think Microsoft is trying to do *so* many things at once, and it will be interesting to see what pans out and what doesn't.

  1. 2  Michael Sampson www.shared-spaces.com | 3/10/2005 11:46:15 AM

    Ed, Communicator is not another piece to the puzzle ... it's just a replacement for Windows Messenger, albeit with additional functions.

    Here's my take on the acquisition, and what will happen as a result: { Link }

  1. 3  Dave  | 3/10/2005 11:49:39 AM

    I don't think that the acquisition is really what is interesting here...

    Everyone acknowledges that Ozzie is a sharp guy with decent vision. Having him as a CTO of Microsoft, who knows what directions he may lead them. Long-term, the interesting impact of this is not what happens to any specific product -- it will be more interesting to see how he performs in his new role.

  1. 4  Ben Rose http://www.jaffacake.net/bensblog.nsf | 3/10/2005 11:54:03 AM

    Remembering my recent Gartner teleconference, they gave the impression that MS was stuck on traditional fat client technology, not newer thinner rich clients that are easier to deploy and have a smaller footprint.

    Again, Groove adds to this. It's heavy...

    { Link }

  1. 5  Michael G  | 3/10/2005 12:03:10 PM

    Congrats Ed, you have been slashdotted! /.

    { Link }

  1. 6  Rick Sizemore  | 3/10/2005 12:04:14 PM

    Not sure that this is such a big deal. MS already owned a large chunk, about half the funding for groove was from MS. They were already working on Office integration. So this just really formalizes the existing relationship.

    This is actually kind of scary if you're an MS shop, this is once again another collaborative strategy, that's like 5 now in the past couple of years.

    And this brings MS tens of corporate customers that have bought Groove. Well that may be exagerating a bit, probably not that many in the enterprise space.

    I'll be interested to see what becomes of Groove, it's a pretty cool little app, but it's just not enteprise ready now. Could you imaging a CSO looking at a P2P solution that may have corp confidential data residing in it? Uhh, no thanks.

    Plus, licensing today costs slightly more than Office, couldn't see it becoming free. The Groove--Sharepoint connection might be interesting, but isn't that Notes--Domino, without the application development capability?

  1. 7  Rob Wunderlich http://www.dominounplugged.com | 3/10/2005 1:34:07 PM

    The strangest thing here is that Groove is actually a working product.

    That means MS will have to break it so that it takes the usual three revs before it works.

    Right?

  1. 8  Ed Brill www.edbrill.com | 3/10/2005 2:49:29 PM

    @2 - Michael, you're right, I forgot that Communicator is a "rip and replace". So we'll say it's fifteen products not sixteen... still, with several different data storage models, user interfaces, etc.

    @3 - certainly I think there's an element of that.

  1. 9  Ludwig Nastansky http://gcc.upb.de | 3/10/2005 4:20:49 PM

    I am happy that with this acquisition the obvious has happened so soon. For good, IBM Lotus Notes/Domino is finally facing serious and profound competition on the Groupware & Collaboration markets. This will help to (re-) focus after more than a decade of Notes/Domino cannibalization on the real and essential issues or technology approaches for collaboration. My guess is that Groove's integration in the MS Windows desktop will accelerate the collaboration market, and start a fruitful competition in this important IT-segment. The Groove Networks step will be a gain to profile Lotus Notes/Domino's value for decentralized collaboration - including the decentralized N/D client-server model being positioned not so much on the edges of an organization, not so much ad-hoc, and much more (form-based) structured and thus enterprise-integration enabled like Groove is with all these MS-Office document files.

    { Link }

  1. 10  Vincent Grant  | 3/10/2005 7:07:19 PM

    @6 - Strongly agree

    @9 - Strongly disagree

    “I am happy that with this acquisition the obvious has happened so soon.”

    - I’m surprised it didn’t happen earlier. The fact that MS has stepped in now so soon after a much hyped full of promises yet short on delivered goods Gates gang get-together speaks volumes.

    “For good, IBM Lotus Notes/Domino is finally facing serious and profound competition on the Groupware & Collaboration markets.”

    - From what, pray tell? What is it that MS are desperately

    trying to play catch up on?

    “This will help to (re-) focus after more than a decade of Notes/Domino cannibalization on the real and essential issues or technology approaches for collaboration.”

    - LOL. Well, this just takes the biscuit altogether. “Cannibalization” you say. Well, how many companies has MS devoured on its Borg-like quest to conquer the known Universe? People in glass houses shouldn’t be throwing stones. I can't help but wonder if MS could be biting off more than it can chew, over-stretching its resources - going after the search market, the security market, now the collaboration market. What's next? Answers on a postcard pls...

    “My guess is that Groove's integration in the MS Windows desktop will accelerate the collaboration market, and start a fruitful competition in this important IT-segment.”

    - Ah, you make a very valid point for me, whether you intended to or not. Groove is MS Windows ONLY. Tell me, is that the same for Domino?

    “The Groove Networks step will be a gain to profile Lotus Notes/Domino's value for decentralized collaboration - including the decentralized N/D client-server model being positioned not so much on the edges of an organization, not so much ad-hoc, and much more (form-based) structured and thus enterprise-integration enabled like Groove is with all these MS-Office document files.”

    - Well, I’m completely flummoxed by that. Someones been reading a little too much of the press-pack spiel me thinks. I do believe that Groove is in its infancy – so is it really such an enterprise ready solution? Do you honestly believe that businesses are gonna employ P2P to store mission-critical data? When I think of Groove I think of something akin to a cross between Gazaa & Real-Player with enhanced encryption which is now likely to be linked into MS Portal Server.

    As far as I’m concerned, the IBM Lotus strategy is clear to see & it’s here & now. IBM Lotus have adopted a very unified approach which is standards compliant unlike Microsofts.

    Furthermore, Lotus Domino is lauded for its security not to mention the fact that it has a tried & trusted track record within the enterprise collaboration business.

  1. 11  David DeWell http://intrigue.iiui.com/david/mainblog.nsf | 3/10/2005 10:00:33 PM

    Quite honestly, I think Ed is being very nice about this. I am a little puzzled, but honestly, this could not have come at a better time to sell Workplace honestly. Microsoft still has garbage, it just looks prettier than it did before with Groove. And really, I made a pretty good analogy between Microsoft acquiring Groove and Jerry Jones and the Cowboys acquiring Drew Bledsoe.

  1. 12  Ben Rose http://blog.jaffacake.net | 3/11/2005 3:58:25 AM

    { Link }

  1. 13  Tim Brown  | 3/11/2005 6:40:42 AM

    @8 - Ed, where is that "list of fifteen"? I'm playing some defense in our company as well.

  1. 14  Karolyn Schalk  | 3/11/2005 7:20:12 AM

    Peer to peer mounted on Windows, Office and .Net. What a fabulous living laboratory for virus transmission and document and credentials theft. It gives a whole new meaning to Excel macro.....

  1. 15  Carl Fink  | 3/11/2005 8:26:35 AM

    In the official press release, Gates is quoted as saying: "Ray and his team are true innovators." But in a less scripted interview on Nightly Business Report (transcript at www.nbr.com), Gates reverts to his self-delusion: "So it's a very exciting day for us to add to our strength as a software innovator." Indeed! Innovation at Microsoft once again means buying both a product and a visionary to add to the trophy case.

    But it's not easy being both a visionary and a business success. Ozzie didn't known how the Internet would evolve when he banged out the first code for Notes, and there are a lot of things that would have been easier if Notes had been designed with the Web in mind from the beginning. It took a lot of investment from Lotus, and then IBM, to keep that product relevant.

    With Groove, Ray made a bet on the Windows platform and the inevitability of Office on the desktop before the open-source movement could be taken seriously there, and now it looks like that Berlin Wall is starting to crack. IBM is much better positioned in this environment, with multi-platform Notes/Domino and leveraging the open-source community for Workplace.

    Even the peer-to-peer wager is looking suspect, as events outside the technology world (i.e. regulatory environment) are pushing the pendulum back toward centralization in order to satisfy the auditors.

    (And yes, I admit it, I had my picture taken with Ray at Lotusphere when he was still an IBM employee. I don't know which one of us looks more uncomfortable..)

  1. 16  Chris Whisonant http://cwhisonant.blogspot.com | 3/11/2005 9:13:18 AM

    @13 - Tim, see the list in post 10 (and the following comments) of the following thread:

    { Link }

  1. 17  Ned Speed  | 3/12/2005 12:58:38 AM

    I had a customer who loved Groove... just about to sign up, then saw WSE... WSE won hands down

  1. 18  Mikhail  | 3/20/2005 8:03:40 AM

    @8

    "So we'll say it's fifteen products not sixteen... still, with several different data storage models, user interfaces, etc."

    Nice point. I■m just be guessing of what number of WebSph+LD apps you may count for the functionally equal deployment and how many differences all they have in UIs, data models and even platforms?