Mikey Campbell
BlackBerry on Friday announced the acquisition of mobility services firm Good Technology in what appears to be an attempt at protecting its position in secure mobile enterprise solutions before declining into complete irrelevancy.
As part of BlackBerry, Good will complement and enhance existing BlackBerry Enterprise Server products that form the basis of BlackBerry's core secure mobile communications business, the company said in a press release.
Current implementations of BES serve enterprise customers using BlackBerry devices, as well as those running Apple's iOS and Google's Android since 2011, and Good is expected to expand compatibility even further. Specifically, the firm will offer the same secure applications and containerization products already in use at thousands of businesses, including more than half of the Fortune 100.
In purchasing Good, it looks as though BlackBerry is shoring up its backend product offerings against a potential collapse in hardware sales. Before iPhone, BlackBerry was the clear leader in mobile messaging technology but saw its position eroded as the commercial successes of iPhone and Android devices ate into enterprise marketshare. Tellingly, Good counts all of the Fortune 100 commercial banks, aerospace and defense firms, and leaders across healthcare, manufacturing and retail as clients.
"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. 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," said John Chen, BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO. "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."
Good's customer base has long been dominated by devices running Apple's iOS. The company noted in its most recent quarterly Mobility Index Report that iOS accounted for 64 percent of all activations on its network.
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43 Comments
Wha?? The company I work for used Good exclusively for mobile connectivity. And the majority of people use it on iPhone. This will be fun.
I'll admit I am not a financial guy, but how does a company that has a market cap of 3.85B down ~ 8% in the last year spend $425M on this?
IMHO this is a good move. Why not: Bolster what's left of BB Hardware customers – and through the back door – become an iPhone/Android developer. This way it doesn't look like BB is changing into a software company while they transition into a software company (with a bit of hardware ala MS). If (when) BB passes away, they will still have some jobs left to support the company and the employees. BB going under won't be a Total Lose! Whatchathink?
I hope this works out for them. Chen expects it will take between one and two years to integrate their BES product with that of Good. One year might work, but two is a long time. The problem is that Blackberry isn't good, no pun intended, in doing this. It took a full three years to have BB10 and BES 10 completely ready. They don't have that much time with this. Meanwhile, they intend to sell both products. I've a feeling that soon, we will see an announcement that they will discontinue hardware.
[quote name="Rmb0037" url="/t/188031/blackberry-spends-425m-on-secure-ios-solutions-provider-good-technology#post_2771033"]Wha?? The company I work for used Good exclusively for mobile connectivity. And the majority of people use it on iPhone. This will be fun.[/quote] I don't think that's an issue, but the plan. I think BB is doing what IBM did. They are moving to the back-end of technology field. It's not as glamorous and their mind-share will never be what it once was with the Blackberry as the pinnacle of the pager-phone, but this could help them dig out a solid niche that will allow them to both grow and be profitable again. [quote name="kent909" url="/t/188031/blackberry-spends-425m-on-secure-ios-solutions-provider-good-technology#post_2771036"]I'll admit I am not a financial guy, but how does a company that has a market cap of 3.85B down ~ 8% in the last year spend $425M on this? [/quote] Depends on the cash they have on hand and/or using their assets as leverage for a loan. Let's remember that Apple bought NeXT for $429 million and I think their market cap at the time of the sale was even less than BB's in right now. I'm thinking it was about $500 million less, at $3.3 billion. Hopefully someone will verify that or have some better data for you. It's only in retrospect that we look at that purchase and say, "Of course that made since. Look where Apple is today."