BlackBerry to Acquire WatchDox Ltd.

BlackBerry Limited announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire WatchDox Ltd. to further enhance BlackBerry’s mobile security and give enterprises control over their files even after data leaves the corporate network. WatchDox’s technology will be offered as a value-added service that complements BlackBerry’s Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) portfolio, and will be available with BES12, a multi-OS EMM solution.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.  Completion of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions.

The press release said, the addition of WatchDox will extend BlackBerry’s commitment to help organizations securely connect employees with each other and with corporate information across all mobile and desktop platforms. BES12 is the foundation for BlackBerry’s extensive portfolio of enterprise security, productivity, and communication and collaboration services.BlackBerry’s acquisition of WatchDox follows last year’s purchase of Secusmart, a provider of high-security voice and data encryption.

Said John Chen, BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO, “this acquisition represents another key step forward as we transition BlackBerry into the premier platform for secure mobile communications software and applications, supporting all devices and operating systems. Together with last year’s Secusmart acquisition, Samsung partnership, our own internal development efforts, and now the acquisition of WatchDox, we now have capabilities to secure communications end-to-end from voice, text, messaging, data and now enterprise file-sync-and share.”