Adobe acquires web word-processor Buzzword

by admin October 1, 2007 at 5:12 pm

Adobe has officially entered the “web office” game.

The company on Monday is expected to announce that it has acquired an 11-person start-up, Virtual Ubiquity, that has built a free web word processor called “Buzzword”. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The move expands Adobe’s collaborative software services and steps up its competition with Microsoft and a host of other web application providers, including Google.

Adobe also is scheduled to announce a service, code-named “Share”, that allows people to invite others to view and access documents stored by Adobe. Documents can be embedded inside a web page as well. The service, which is still in testing mode, will offer users 1GB of storage for free.

Adobe executives are scheduled to detail these initiatives at its Max 2007 developer and designer conference, which starts on Monday in Chicago.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is expected on Monday to detail its own document collaboration service, Office Live Workspace, a free online tool for viewing, sharing and storing Office documents online.

Full article: ZDNet.co.uk