Xandros Acquires Scalix -- Linux E-mail, Calendaring and Messaging Company

July 20, 2007; 06:37 AM
Xandros, the leading provider of intuitive end-to-end Linux solutions and cross-platform management tools, announced the acquisition of Scalix, the premier award-winning Linux e-mail, calendaring and messaging company. The acquisition represents another step in the fulfillment of Xandros' strategic vision for developing a complete Linux stack, including desktop, SMB and advanced enterprise servers, cross-platform management tools, and mission-critical IT infrastructure applications, such as e-mail, in order to provide organizations and enterprises of all sizes with single vendor support of their diverse and growing IT infrastructures.

Scalix will continue to operate independently, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Xandros. As such, it will have the parent company's full corporate commitment, and access to its much larger financial and engineering resources and significant new technologies, in order to maintain, enhance, and develop new products in the Scalix portfolio. It will also continue to provide full and equal support for all of Scalix's historical platforms: Red Hat, Novell, Xandros, and others.

Moreover, as part of the larger Xandros company, Scalix will be able to leverage Xandros' resources, and technologies beyond the e-mail server level, which have proven interoperability, cross-platform management, and advanced deployment capabilities that do not require Linux skills within the enterprise. Scalix can also capitalize on OS-level know-how and technologies as part of Xandros, in a way that an email-only company cannot do, in order to extend its e-mail product capabilities and deliver unique feature/function advantages. As a result, Scalix will provide scalable, mission-critical e-mail and collaboration solutions with global 24/7 support that can be easily deployed and administered on Red Hat, Novell, Xandros, and other Linux platforms by Windows network administrators with no prior Linux experience.

"This acquisition brings great advantages to Scalix customers," explained Glenn Winokur, CEO of Scalix. "The expanded Xandros-Scalix engineering and support team will provide a truly integrated messaging and calendaring 'appliance-style' product with unmatched ease of installation and administration on both Xandros and all other supported Linux platforms. As a complementary addition to the Xandros product line, Scalix products will continue to be developed with the same vision and roadmap we've historically pursued, so future versions will continue to appear as seamless upgrades. Furthermore, customers will benefit from strengthened support and service offerings provided through a larger combined reseller and partner network. Finally, as a much larger company, with far greater resources, offices around the world, and additional unique technologies, Scalix will be able to expand and consolidate its leadership position as the premier Linux e-mail and calendaring company."

"We are excited by this acquisition as Scalix has hundreds of corporate customers all over the world, a large following in the open source community, and a common vision of addressing interoperability needs in today's multi-platform environments," said Andreas Typaldos, CEO of Xandros. "In bringing together developers of powerful and intuitive Linux administration, deployment, and management tools from Xandros, with those who created the premier Linux e-mail, calendaring and messaging solution from Scalix, we will create combined solutions that will ensure even faster adoption in the months and years to come by enterprises looking for Linux-based Exchange alternatives that Windows network administrators can easily deploy, without the need for Linux knowledge or expertise."

"The Scalix product will continue to be developed on all platform families supported by Scalix today," Typaldos continued. "We will of course continue to promote the Xandros-Scalix bundled Server application that we developed with Scalix a year ago, but we will also immediately apply those enhanced Xandros deployment and management technologies, tools, and benefits to all of Scalix's non-Xandros platforms as well. Xandros is already committed to having its powerful cross-platform BridgeWays management tools support all key non-Xandros Linux distributions and platforms, and the Scalix e-mail and calendaring product is a perfect fit for the Xandros BridgeWays strategy."

The current tight integration of Scalix within the Xandros Server provides an all-in-one groupware solution that can be centrally administered through the remote, all-graphical Xandros Management Console. The combined solution provides business clients with scalable, industrial strength, world-class e-mail and calendaring, with choice for a wide array of e-mail rich clients, including Outlook, Thunderbird, the AJAX-based Scalix Web Access Client, as well as various popular wireless handheld devices. At LinuxWorld, both Xandros Server and Scalix won product excellence awards for best server and best messaging solution respectively.

While Scalix is now part of the Xandros family, Scalix products will retain their distinct product name and logo, in keeping with the brand's wide recognition for its enterprise-class messaging and calendaring solutions available on multiple Linux platforms.

About Xandros

Xandros, Inc. is the leading provider of award-winning, intuitive, end-to-end Linux solutions, including desktops, SMB and enterprise servers, and mixed-environment, cross-platform management tools. Xandros pioneered low cost, graphical operating systems that leverage existing skill sets and provide seamless Windows-Linux interoperability. It has since extended its Debian-based consumer and business desktop line with SMB and enterprise servers and management software, featuring workflow automation and "single pane of glass" remote deployment and administration. The company is headquartered in New York with research and development facilities in Ottawa and Mumbai, and sales and support offices worldwide. For more information, please visit www.xandros.com.

About Scalix

Scalix is the leading Linux email, calendaring and messaging company. Scalix allows companies to reduce the cost and complexity of messaging with a field-proven collaboration platform based on Linux, open standards, and open source. The Scalix products provide flexibility and freedom of choice, helping enterprises achieve independence from vendor, technology and licensing lock-in. With over 1 million mailboxes deployed, 140,000 Community Edition downloads, 5,500 community forum members and 675 corporate customers, Scalix Collaboration Platform is the most field-proven Linux email and group calendaring solution available to enterprises. The privately held company is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices and distribution partners in North America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. For more information, visit www.scalix.com.