Newsgator has acquiredTomoye, a social networking platform for Sharepoint. The acqusition makes Newagator one of the largest enterprise collaboration companies in the Enterprise 2.0 space and positions it as a vendor with the deepest ties to the Sharepoint environment.
Details of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition buoys Newsgator’s reputation as an enterprise collaboration provider, almost exclusively for the Sharepoint platform.
Newsgator says it now has 2.1 million paying users, which it claims makes its the largest social computing vendor. It’s a claim we are a bit skeptical about as there are so many possible ways to define exactly what it means to be a social computing vendor.
Newsgator has always had deep ties with Microsoft. it began as a news aggregator that embedded into Outlook. In recent years, Newsgator has transformed into a collaboration provide that is clearly focused on integrating with Sharepoint. Microsoft seems to look kindly on Newsgator as a partner. In contrast, companies like Jive, that integrate with Sharepoint, are seen more as competitors.
The acquisition appears to give Newsgator deeper social networking capabilities but perhaps more so gives it a position in the Government 2.0 world.
Tomoye was founded in 2000. Its most significant installation is with the U.S. Army, where it has 150,000 users. Customers include the Federal Reserve Bank, The United States Air Force and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
