In 2002, the founders of Coversant entered the software collaboration market. They placed their bets on the developing, but non-mainstream standard, Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP). Coversant’s team selected a direction in direct contradiction to the industry direction. In 2004, to the overall surprise of the industry, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) approved XMPP as the worldwide standard for messaging and presence, in opposition to the proprietary standards already developed by the major market players, including Microsoft, AOL, IBM, and Yahoo!. The IETF bottom-line: stop the squabbling and create a catalyst for interoperability. Coversant had over two years of product development in place based on XMPP.