This IDC Flash examines Cisco Systems' announcement on August 27, 2008, of its intention to acquire PostPath, a provider of Linux-based email and calendaring (and related virtualization and archiving) server software to fill the largest remaining hole that had existed in the Cisco collaboration software-as-a-service (SaaS) portion of Cisco's unified communications (UC) portfolio. Cisco said it would pay $215 million for all shares of PostPath, which has raised $30 million in private funding since its founding in 2003 and market entrance in July 2006. PostPath's employees in Mountain View, California, and Sofia, Bulgaria, will join the Cisco Collaboration Software Group, which is part of the recently formed Cisco Software Group. Existing PostPath customers running PostPath software will continue to receive support, maintenance, and upgrades. New customers will have access to the PostPath email and calendaring functionality as part of the Cisco Connect SaaS collaboration platform, which includes instant messaging, voice, video, document management, and Web 2.0 tools. Cisco's existing WebEx Mail customers, which are mostly SMBs, will be migrated over to the PostPath functionality. Cisco expects the acquisition to be completed in the first quarter of fiscal-year 2009, which began at the end of July.