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Why did BlackBerry acquire its arch rival?

Good Technology will boost BlackBerry's ability to help corporate clients manage smart phones running on different operating systems

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Sonal Desai
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MUMBAI, INDIA: BlackBerry has acquired its arch rival, Good Technology for $425 million.

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Good Technology, a provider of mobile software provider will boost BlackBerry's ability to help corporate clients manage smart phones running on different operating systems.

Good’s technology will integrate with BlackBerry’s enterprise portfolio and global network, creating a comprehensive management solution for all mobile devices that protects customers’ security and privacy. This holistic experience will provide customers with greater mobile enterprise productivity, including seamless integration of capabilities across multiple applications, including BBM, WatchDox, Good Work and other value added services.

With Good, BlackBerry will expand its presence with global enterprise and government customers. Good serves more than 6,200 organizations including more than half of the Fortune 100, all of the Fortune 100 commercial banks, aerospace and defense firms, and leaders across healthcare, manufacturing and retail. BlackBerry is the trusted mobility partner of all G7 governments, 16 of the G20 governments, 10 out of 10 of the largest global banks and law firms, and the top five largest managed healthcare, investment services, and oil and gas companies.

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As per a press release, Good will bring complementary capabilities and technologies to BlackBerry, including secure applications and containerization that protects end user privacy. With Good, BlackBerry will expand its ability to offer cross-platform EMM solutions that are critical in a world with varying deployment models such as bring-your-own-device (BYOD); corporate owned, personally enabled (COPE); as well as environments with multiple user interfaces and operating systems.

Good has expertise in multi-OS management with 64 percent of activations from iOS devices, followed by a broad Android and Windows customer base. This experience combined with BlackBerry’s strength in BlackBerry 10 and Android management–including Samsung KNOX-enabled devices – will provide customers with increased choice for securely deploying any leading operating system in their organization. The Good Dynamics platform provides app-level encryption, advanced data loss prevention and secure communication between applications. The platform has more than 2,000 independent software vendor and custom applications built today.

“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.”

BlackBerry expects the transaction to be completed toward the end of the company’s 2016 fiscal third quarter and is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. JP Morgan Securities LLC and Bank of America Merrill Lynch served as financial advisors to Good Technology, and each provided a fairness opinion to the board of directors of Good Technology.

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