The rumors about Yahoo selling Zimbra have finally become fact.  Today, VMware announced that it’s acquired the open source email and collaboration specialist, and although the financial details weren’t disclosed, corporate representatives on all sides of the transaction seem pleased.

At the moment, the Zimbra homepage bears a "BUY ZIMBRA" button and a stamp reading "a Yahoo division."  But according to a new report, a sale of Zimbra (and not just a Zimbra product) may soon take place, making "a VMware division" a more accurate statement.

To most people and companies, a $350 million purchase would represent a huge, long-lasting commitment.  Yahoo, on the other hand, apparently wants out of its ownership of Zimbra after a period of two years.

An email-related Yahoo product might be expected to affect no more than Yahoo Mail, Ymail, and RocketMail.  Somebody’s been feeling energetic, though, as Yahoo Zimbra Desktop Beta will allow users to access even Gmail and AOL Mail while they’re offline.

This is one of two Google rumors that surfaced over the weekend. The other one is here.

The $350 million cash price tag Yahoo will pay for email software firm Zimbra makes the mind reel. Especially since Yahoo just got finished with a major update for its Mail product.

Yahoo just acquired Zimbra for 350 million bucks, TechCrunch reports and Yahoo confirms. In Zimbra’s own, slightly cryptic words…

Zimbra’s “About Us” page is pretty nice – there are concise statements regarding what the company does, who it works with, and how to contact it.  The page may need an overhaul, however, as it also offers an option to “View Google Map,” and word has it that Zimbra was just acquired by Yahoo.

Comcast.net’s online communications center called SmartZone will have applications provided by a number of companies for email, voicemail, and instant messaging.

Zimbra, a low-cost email program, might be more competition to Microsoft Exchange than the company had anticipated.

Using the dynamic features of Ajax coding for a web-based application can also be a secure experience for users.

Proponents of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML-style development have formed a group to advance their goals. The OpenAJAX Alliance attracted some influential individuals and corporations, including IBM and Zimbra.

The highly selective Sand Hill Group has chosen Compiere as one of the twenty featured companies at its Software 2006 conference.

The old line and the new guard in technology joined a group focused on delivering an open source project based at promoting the adoption of web development using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML technology.