In many ways I can't say I'm surprised by the news that Microsoft has bought Groove. Indeed I'd only been speculating to myself a few days ago as to whether someone would buy Groove, and who that player might be. After all, one of the goals of many startups is to get bought out by someone larger, and in the software world you don't get much larger than Microsoft.

There was quite some idle chatter at Lotusphere, where Ray Ozzie appeared, as to whether IBM would be the one who jumped first, to add Groove to the Lotus product line. I'd discounted that myself, partly because I don't think that Groove is quite in the same market area as Lotus Notes and Domino are, and partly because Microsoft are already a substantial -- over $50 million -- investor in Groove and would be unwilling to see it go to the competition.

What Microsoft will make of Groove is another matter. There are a number of possible reasons for the purchase:

• To stop it falling into someone else's hands. After all, that must have been one of IBM's motivations behind buying Lotus. I'm not sure, to be honest, who else may have been making a play for Groove, but then I'm not a market analyst.
• To get hold of the revenue streams. Comparing the size of Groove to that of Microsoft, I don't think that's a particularly compelling reason. [However, Groove has been selling heavily into government procurements, so this may have helped Microsoft hook into an otherwise key government buy. --DG]
• Customer list? No, not credible, either, yet. Most if not all Groove customers are Microsoft customers already.