Collabora
Collabora is an open-source software consultancy founded in Cambridge, United Kingdom, in 2005. Its division Collabora Productivity develops the LibreOffice-based Collabora Office and Collabora Online and describes itself as the largest contributor of commits to LibreOffice. From June 2025 Denmark’s digitalisation ministry piloted Collabora as a replacement for Microsoft Office; the pilot ended before the country’s 2026 election.
Contents7 sections
Key facts
2005Founding in Cambridge
Collabora Limited was incorporated on July 20, 2005, with its registered office in Cambridge, United Kingdom.[1]
Rob McQueen founded Collabora in 2005 and served as its CTO, growing it to 100 people over ten years; its clients included IntelIntelIntel is a semiconductor company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore in 1968; it introduced the 4004 microprocessor in 1971, its x86 processors have long powered personal computers, it has pursued a foundry strategy since 2021, and Lip-Bu Tan has been its chief executive officer since 2025.Open the full entry, GoogleGoogleGoogle is an American technology company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin and incorporated in 1998. It became an Alphabet subsidiary in 2015. Its businesses include internet search, advertising, software platforms, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence.Open the full entry, ARM, HP and Nokia.[2]
2013Collabora Productivity Formed
In 2013 SUSE spun out half of its 15-person LibreOffice development team to Collabora.[3]
Collabora Productivity Limited was incorporated in Cambridge on August 9, 2013, registered under information technology consultancy activities.[4]
March 2015Investing in an Online Version
In March 2015 development of a browser-based LibreOffice was funded, first by IceWarp and then by Collabora’s own investment.[3]
June 19, 2025Danish Ministry Pilot
On June 19, 2025, the Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs began a digital-sovereignty pilot in which selected staff used Collabora, based on LibreOffice, instead of Microsoft Office inside cBrain’s F2 case management system, testing template compatibility, formatting, tracked changes, tables and conversion to and from Word formats; success could lead to a broader rollout across the ministry.[5]
Thirty-eight employees of the ministry took part, and the project was promoted by then-digitalisation minister Caroline Stage.[6]
2026Pilot Ends and Collabora’s Response
The pilot ended before the Danish government called an early election in February 2026; some employees had complained about styles, paragraph formatting, blank pages and change tracking. The ministry has since been merged into the Ministry for Research, Education and Digitalisation.[7]
It ended without a proper evaluation.[6]
Collabora Productivity CEO Michael Meeks said the test had only been paused; the company plans to restart it with a new group of participants before the end of 2026.[8]
Business and Ownership: Collabora Office and LibreOffice
Collabora Productivity is a division of the software consultancy Collabora, led by CEO Michael Meeks; it develops and sells the open-source office suite Collabora Office and the collaborative editing product Collabora Online, with offices in Hamburg, Germany, and Cambridge, United Kingdom, and more than 60 staff in over 20 countries.[9]
The company describes itself as the single largest contributor of commits to the LibreOffice codebase.[9]
Meeks was previously a Novell/SUSE Distinguished Engineer and as of 2021 served as a director of The Document Foundation and on the LibreOffice Engineering Steering Committee.[10]
The registered persons with significant control of Collabora Productivity Limited are Collabora Limited and Cloudblue It Limited, each holding more than 25% but not more than 50% of shares and voting rights, notified on April 6, 2016.[11]
Sources
- Collabora Limited (opens in a new window)
- Rob McQueen - OpenUK (opens in a new window)
- The history & pre-history of LibreOffice (opens in a new window)
- COLLABORA PRODUCTIVITY LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (opens in a new window)
- The Ministry of Digital Affairs launches a pilot project on digital sovereignty (opens in a new window)
- Minister tog »første skridt« mod Microsoft-uafhængighed: Nu er projektet i al stilhed skrottet (opens in a new window)
- Denmark’s bid to ditch Microsoft Office for open-source alternative Collabora collapses in under six months (opens in a new window)
- Collabora-Pilot in Dänemark: Ministerium stoppt Test, Hersteller plant Neustart (opens in a new window)
- About Collabora Productivity (opens in a new window)
- Interview with Michael Meeks, the General Manager of Collabora Productivity (opens in a new window)
- COLLABORA PRODUCTIVITY LIMITED persons with significant control - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (opens in a new window)