BlackBerry, the maker of smartphones beloved by a certain segment of the corporate population and Kim Kardashian, said Friday it will acquire Good Technology, a mobile security company, for $425 million. Good has clients in global financial firms and expertise securing both iOS and Android handsets, and with BlackBerry rumored to release an Android-based phone that expertise will be valuable.
Plus, BlackBerry (BBRY) may have missed the boat on touch screens but it would be hard to miss the wave after wave of malware on phones and security breaches in corporate circles. So it makes sense that the handset that was once the darling of the jet set would want to get ahead of the problem with a big name buy to assure its phones remain locked down. Right now, it hasn’t had as many issues, in part because of the design of its messaging system (which has actually caused it some problems with international governments), but also because it has such a tiny market share it isn’t a target of hackers.
In a company blog post explaining the deal Good’s CEO Christy Wyatt explained that the purchase should also help Blackberry move forward with security for the Internet of things, owing to the multi-platform nature of Good’s software. For example, Good’s software already secures the Apple Watch and Android Gear wearables and both companies have a similar framework that will translate well to covering many devices.
BlackBerry’s plan for the Internet of things is to certify the security of connected devices through its Certicom subsidiary, which then means they could be authenticated on corporate networks more easily. If the corporate client is a Good customer, that process could be seamless.
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