BlackBerry on Friday agreed to acquire enterprise mobility and security provider Good Technology for US$425 million in cash.
"By acquiring Good, BlackBerry will better solve one of the biggest struggles for CIOs today, especially those in regulated industries: securely managin g devices across any platform," said BlackBerry CEO John Chen, in a statement.
Indeed, Good Technology specialises in providing tools to manage devices running on any operating system and in any deployment scenario, from corporate-owned, personally enabled (COPE) devices, to bring your own device (BYOD).
The company serves 6,200 organisations, including more than half of the Fortune 100, which includes all Fortune 100 commercial banks, aerospace and defence firms.
Friday’s deal is in line with BlackBerry’s stated aim to become an enterprise mobility services provider that also makes smartphones, rather than a smartphone maker that also happens to offer enterprise mobility services.
"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," Chen said.
"Like BlackBerry, Good has a very strong presence in enterprises and governments around the world and, with this transaction, BlackBerry will enhance its sales and distribution capabilities and further grow its enterprise software revenue stream," he added.
Good’s solutions will become part of BlackBerry’s enterprise portfolio.
"We are excited to join BlackBerry, where together we will be the most comprehensive mobile platform in the market," said Good CEO Christy Wyatt.
BlackBerry expects the transaction to close towards the end of its fiscal third quarter of 2016, which ends on 28 November 2015.
