Citrix Scales Up Desktop Virtualization Line With Acquisition

Citrix will formally announce the acquisition on Wednesday at the company's Synergy conference in San Francisco. Citrix chief marketing officer Wes Wasson disclosed the acquisition in a news conference with journalists Tuesday: The company lifted the embargo on the news when word of the acquisition began to leak out.

Virtual Computer's NxTop products were widely seen as a competitor to Citrix's own XenClient virtualization software. Citrix acquired that technology when it bought XenSource in 2007. But, Citrix was also a strategic investor in Virtual Computer, participating in the startup's $15 million series B round of funding.

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Citrix will debut a new product Wednesday called Citrix XenClient Enterprise Edition based on Virtual Computer's technology. XenClient Enterprise Edition is designed to simplify enterprise-wide deployment and provide advanced policy and security controls, and automated backup and recovery capabilities, Wasson said.

Wasson said Virtual Computer would become part of Citrix's XenClient product group. He did not disclose how much Citrix paid to acquire the Westford, Mass.-based company.