Citrix buys Podio for social collaboration, project management software

IDG News Service - Citrix said Wednesday it has acquired Podio, maker of a cloud-based software platform for project management and collaboration. Terms were not disclosed.

Podio's technology is aimed at small and medium-sized businesses and allows users to create workspaces, wherein specific groups of employees and clients can collaborate on a given project. Its cloud delivery model is ideal for distributed teams as well as mobile workers, Citrix said.

An App Builder toolset provides the ability to tweak the system's functions and workflows. The company also has an App Market where customers can download and share apps they build, currently at no charge.

Podio's website also positions its software as ideal for CRM (customer relationship management) tasks, such as tracking leads and sales and sharing information across sales teams, as well as employee recruitment.

In addition, it is possible to integrate with or embed Podio into on-premises applications and other cloud services, such as Dropbox and Google Apps, Citrix said in a statement.

Citrix may have been interested in Podio for the seeming breadth of its capabilities, as it competes to varying degrees with those products as well as project management software like Basecamp and enterprise social networking applications such as Jive and Yammer.

The acquisition also reflects a broader trend, according to one observer.

"This is Citrix's entrance into the 'future of work' software space," said analyst Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research. "When you think about where you work, what you work on it, when you work, and even the reasons for why you work, they're changing."

Citrix is planning to discuss its intentions for Podio at next month's Synergy conference in San Francisco.