Networking giant Cisco is set to acquire Colorado-based instant messaging software company Jabber for an undisclosed amount.

The deal is now subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close within the next four months. Cisco claimed the acquisition would allow it to further embed presence and messaging capabilities into its networking offerings.

Jabber's messaging platform utilises open standards and enables collaboration across a number of different presence systems. These include Microsoft Office Communications Server, IBM Sametime, AOL AIM, Yahoo! and Google.

Doug Dennerline, senior vice president of Cisco's collaboration software group, said: "Enterprise organisations want an extensible presence and messaging platform that can integrate with business process applications and easily adapt to their changing needs.

“With the acquisition of Jabber, we will be able to extend the reach of our current instant messaging service and expand the capabilities of our collaboration platform. Our intention is to be the interoperability benchmark in the collaboration space."