Groove
Refinances But Microsoft Likes P2P, Too
Groove has been very much in the news in
the last few weeks. The peer-to-peer software player has managed to get all of
its investment partners to ante up for another round, to the tune of
$38 million. This
includes former director Mitch Kapor, Microsoft, Intel, and Accel
Partners.
Kapor, who is now running an open source
software start-up, has resigned from the board of directors.
It is rumored (in the New York Times) that this may be
because he is opposed to the idea the Groove software might be used
by the federal government for security purposes in a way that might
be construed to invade personal privacy.
Kapor is a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and
a well-known privacy rights advocate.
In the meantime, Groove has
announced that its Workspace 2.5 product is ready and is now enabled
with a SOAP interface and provides better integration with Microsoft
Outlook and with SharePoint Team Services.
Groove does most of its
selling (it has about 150 customers) directly, often making joint
sales calls with Microsoft. Its
software is used to craft collaboration solutions.
That, however, did not
prevent Microsoft from offering its own P2P services recently or
from putting baseline SharePoint Services into the 2003 Windows
Server shipping next month. Groove
intends to move a bit further up the feeding chain, and get out of
the business of directly competing with its investor, although they
agree that there is some overlap.
Groove is certain that their good relationship with senior
Microsoft executives will keep them in a good position.
Groove has also announced a layoff,
presumably to make sure that their new cash inflow lasts as long as
possible in a somewhat hostile business environment.
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