It was declared by the Cisco Systems Inc on Wednesday, August 27 that it is going to acquire PostPath for $215 million. PostPath happens to be a venture-backed start-up that offers open-source e-mail and calendaring software. Cisco Systems is the leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet. The buy-out will augment the collaboration tools of Cisco.   

The venture capitalists should feel happy with this news as this year the investors have been able to cash out of handful start-up firms. It was in March 2007 that Cisco forayed into online workplace tie-ups after it spent $3.2 billion for acquiring WebEx that convenes Web meetings. Speaking about this new collaboration, Charles Carmel, VP of corporate development for Cisco, said that the products of PostPath will add to the tie-up forum.   

Charles Carmel added that this will also sharpen the competition of Cisco with the collaboration tools of Microsoft Exchange. He said that the acquisition of PostPath is only in the line of the aggressive acquisitions that Cisco has been making in the online collaboration market. This happens to be Cisco's fourth acquisition this year, which is quite slow as compared to its usually 10 to 15 per annum.