BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has struck a deal with the mobile device-management software provider Good Technology Corp. The deal would assist the smartphone giant to attract more corporate customers. Good technology is used by several renowned companies. The all-cash deal is worth $425 million.
The Sunnyvale, California-based Good Technology specializes in applications which assist the corporate organizations to manage their work more efficiently through their smartphones. The firm has 6,200 customers including all of the G7 governments and the world’s 10 largest banks and law firms, according to BlackBerry.
Good Technology is also used by the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and other Android smartphone makers. So it is a lucrative move by the BlackBerry as it will hold all these clients in near future. BlackBerry expects the Good Technology to add $160 million in its revenue account in the first year after the closure of the deal, Chief Executive Officer John Chen said.
“Sometimes your best defense is a good offence,” said John Butler, senior handsets analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “This is good for BlackBerry in the sense that it gives them greater scale and therefore a greater ability to compete with larger rivals.”
Good Technology will improve the BlackBerry’s existing BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) product portfolio. Blackberry will bring together Good Technology’s secure e-mailing apps with its expertise in assisting companies manage and secure thousands of connected tablets and phones, a statement given by the Chen.
“BlackBerry and Good combined will raise the bar in the enterprise mobility market,” he said. “We are expecting significant operating expense synergies.”
Good was founded in 2000 under the name of SpringThings. Later on it was acquired by the Motorola in 2006 and in 2009 Motorola sold it to email provider Visto. Visto assumed the name Good Technology for it in 2009. BlackBerry had a tense relationship with the original Good in 2004 but later on both firms get on the same page.
Before the launch of Apple’s iPhone, BlackBerry was considered as the darling of the business world. But with the introduction of Apple iphones, BlackBerry dynasty was overthrown. If BlackBerry will be able to handle and improvise the Good expertise rightly it may finally be able to bring corporate customers back to the table.
