Here's an interesting story from India (why haven't I seen it posted elsewhere?) saying that WebEx wants to start buying up small software companies.
The company will spread to sales force automation, ERP, and presence management domains as it expands its "on-demand" service offerings.
I hope they don't lose focus on the webinar technology that got them where they are! Diversification has its positive and negative points. I rather liked a company where everybody in support knew the product I was calling about. But growth through acquisition is a nice way to quickly expand your product offerings and it could make them that much stronger as the collaboration wars heat up (sounds like something out of a George Lucas movie).
UPDATE:
Just as I finished posting the above blurb, I saw this article from Computer Business Review Online in which the VP of EMEA for WebEx also was surprisingly open about strategic direction and tactical changes coming up. They want to bump up marketing and lead generation for that region and are planning to reduce percentage spend on R&D in favor of more spend on sales and marketing.
You can reduce R&D percentage if you are going on an acquisition binge. Ah... all the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place!
