FORTUNE — It has been just over one year since Microsoft (MSFT) completed its $1.2 billion acquisition of social enterprise software company Yammer Inc., and the head of Yammer rival Jive Software (JIVE) doesn’t think it worked out too well.
“It’s dead,” said Jive CEO Tony Zingale when asked about Yammer during a panel discussion at Fortune BrainstormTech in Aspen.
For the record, Yammer is very much still in business — but Zingale clearly believes that it has lost its edge since being acquired by the boys in Bellevue. His comment came after being asked for his initial views of the purchase, in terms of whether it was positive or negative for Jive. His reply:
“On the first day [after the acquisition] we were celebrating because Microsoft’s the place innovation goes to die. However, if they get it right given their size and scale and their reach and their channels and the grip they have on the corporate integration technology organizations for workplace productivity tools… Yeah, I think it could be very challenging. So you’ve got to use the strength you have, which is move as fast as you can and innovate… And, at the same time, it validates even further the fact that there’s a real market here when a company of Yammer’s size and scale gets acquired for that multiple.”
A Microsoft/Yammer spokeswoman said that the company would “politely decline to comment,” when asked for a response to Zingale’s statements.
Below is a video of the full panel, which also included Splunk (SPLK) CEO Godfrey Sullivan, Tableau Software (DATA) CEO Christian Chabot, AT&T (T) Business Solutions chief marketing officer Michael Bowling and Insight Venture Partners investor Deven Parekh. Zingale’s comments begin at 37:35.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxRcAFfqyyo]
