Citrix and Microsoft Renew their Licensing Deal

Citrix and Microsoft announced today that they're renewing their cross-licensing agreement for another five years.

The press release was light on details, although it appears that this is nothing more than an extension of their current agreement. The current agreement, previously renewed every three years, is what allowed Microsoft to get the core Terminal Server code from Citrix and Citrix to get the Windows source code from Microsoft.

The press release mentioned the word "Longhorn" five times, although it didn't say what Citrix was going to be doing with Longhorn or in the Longhorn timeframe.

Most likely, the main point of this press release is for Citrix to convince people it's okay to buy MetaFrame and that MetaFrame will still have value in the Longhorn timeframe.

Mark Templeton's quote was filled with the requisite terms ("exciting," "integration," "help us deliver solutions," "help us better serve our customers, "great value to customers," and "agreement is a driver of innovation.").

Microsoft's response from Bob Muglia (SVP for Windows Servers) was equally as insightful. "We are excited to expand our business relationship with Citrix Systems in order to better serve our customers. This collaboration will result in an improved and more extensible Windows Server platform for ISVs that broadens the solutions for Windows server and ensures that Windows 'Longhorn' Server will be the best platform for access solutions available in the market. Furthermore, this technology and patent licensing agreement provides an important context for our collaboration with Citrix." Continue At Source

[Via Bink.nu]