Ailing Canadian handset maker BlackBerry Ltd. is working to reinvent itself and spending a pretty penny to do it. The company has agreed to buy Good Technology for $425 million in an all-cash deal.
The Good acquisition certainly fits into BlackBerry’s strategy to offer customers stronger mobile security. Good is recognized as a leader in security mobility with solutions that cover all stages of the lifecycle for both enterprises and governments. More than 6,200 companies in 189 companies use Good’s technology, including Fortune 100 firms.
“By acquiring Good, BlackBerry will better solve one of the biggest struggles for CIOs today, especially those in regulated industries: securely managing devices across any platform,” said John Chen (pictured), BlackBerry’s executive chairman and CEO, in a statement today. “By providing even stronger cross-platform capabilities our customers will not have to compromise on their choice of operating systems, deployment models or any level of privacy and security.”
Cross-Platform Security
With Good’s technology backing it, BlackBerry adds depth to its mobile security platform. BlackBerry will be able to offer apps for any mobile device running on any operating system covered by security that governments around the world have certified. That’s a big move for BlackBerry.
Good also lets BlackBerry expand its capabilities on the cross-platform enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions front. That’s a critical move with hybrid technology models in many organizations, including bring-your-own-device (BYOD) and corporate-owned, personally-enabled devices. On top of that are environments with multi-OS management, an area in which Good specializes.
“Enterprise customers today demand stringent security and the most flexible platform across all mobility strategies,” said Christy Wyatt, Good Chairman and CEO, in the statement. “Good has worked hard to deliver the highest levels of security across operating systems and applications. Our trusted Good solutions will also help BlackBerry to accelerate its Internet of Things platform for managing endpoints beyond mobile devices.”
Good Move?
We caught up with Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, to get his thoughts on the acquisition. He told us of all the problems today’s businesses face, two in particular — ensuring end-user privacy and managing heterogeneous mobile devices — are probably the most challenging.
“Blackberry’s acquisition of Good aims to address both of those issues. First, Good’s secure applications and containerization features are designed to enforce privacy policies in numerous enterprise mobility management situations, including BYOD and/or corporate-owned and personally-enabled scenarios,” King said.
“Good will also expand Blackberry’s multi-platform management solutions, especially in Apple iOS and Microsoft Windows, which Blackberry previously lacked,” he added. “Overall, this is a solid and wise acquisition for Blackberry that should expand the company’s solution portfolio and business opportunities.”
BlackBerry said the transaction should be completed toward the end of the company’s 2016 fiscal third quarter. The company said it expects to realize approximately $160 million in revenue from Good in the first year after closing.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.
