Dropbox takes aim at Microsoft’s Yammer market with Zulip acquisition

18 Mar 2014

Dropbox is entering the workplace chat market with the acquisition of Zulip, a desktop and mobile app that allows users to share public and private messages with their co-workers.

The move brings Dropbox once again on a competitive parallel with Microsoft, which acquired Yammer in 2012 for US$1.2bn in cash.

It is also a space occupied by Salesforce.com, which is pumping considerable resources into the enterprise social network with its Chatter technology.

Zulip’s technology allows workers to manage their chats by subject threads and topical streams.

The technology is still in beta mode.

Ex-Oracle engineers are the founders of Zulip. To date, angels investors have funded the company.

Cloud messaging image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

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