VMware’s one year old, Zimbra saw its latest version, Zimbra.7 being unveiled on Monday last. VMware had acquired Zimbra from Yahoo January last year as it did not quite get the leverage the software required with Yahoo’s non-PR attitude.

Zimbra, one of the best-known providers of open source email, may soon have a new owner. Rumors are swirling that Yahoo plans to sell Zimbra to VMware. If true, here are the implications for Zimbra business partners.

Zimbra has both commercial and Open Source versions. The Open Source project is very interesting in that it has many features that people want and looks great. You can use Zimbra Desktop to gather mail from many different accounts including Zimbra Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, AOL, Outlook or any other work or personal email account using POP or IMAP.

Yahoo has finally offloaded its open source enterprise e-mail division, Zimbra, to VMware. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the sales price is believed to be far less than the US$350 million Yahoo paid for the company in September 2007. Kara Swisher at Boomtown reported that the sales price was "well below" the acquisition price, but didn't specify an amount.

It’s been less than a month since VMware officially acquired Zimbra -- the open source email platform -- from Yahoo. But VMware isn’t standing still. Jim Morrisroe, VP and GM of VMware’s Zimbra division, says the company is preparing software appliances that combine virtualization with Zimbra. They should arrive by Q2 2010. Here are the details and the implications.

VMware is poised Tuesday to further redefine its cloud strategy by buying Yahoo's Zimbra open source messaging business in order to expand its stake in the platform-as-a-service market. Zimbra, bought by Yahoo in 2007 for $350 million, is an open source messaging platform popular on the Linux and Mac OS platforms and with universities and service providers.

Zimbra software is open source, meaning we make both the software code and the application itself available to anyone at no charge. Also, Zimbra Desktop is a full version; there are no missing features or catches.

We don't for certain that VMware, the giant proprietary virtualization company, is buying Zimbra, the open-source e-mail server company from Yahoo, but that's the news from the rumor-mill.

Zimbra, the open source email provider owned by Yahoo, has recruited more than 450 hosting partners. Plus, the company's partner-generated revenue is skyrocketing this year, despite fierce competition from Microsoft Exchange. Here's the scoop.