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BlackBerry Ltd. has agreed to buy file-sharing security startup WatchDox, shoring up its software offerings to ease its reliance on smartphones.
WatchDox products are designed to give organizations control over how files are edited, copied, printed or forwarded from mobile and desktop devices.
Among other things, WatchDox gives administrators the ability to lock or remove access to files compromised in a data breach.
The company has its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., and a research centre in Israel, which is expected to become the basis of a new security-focused BlackBerry R&D centre.
BlackBerry says the WatchDox technology will be offered as a value-added service and available with its BlackBerry Enterprise Server software, one of the smartphone company’s main products for organizations.
BlackBerry is working to boost software revenue to $500 million by March 2016, and chief executive officer John Chen has said acquisitions are a key part of how the company will reach that target.
The deal for WatchDox comes nine months after BlackBerry bought Secusmart, a German company that makes anti-eavesdropping technology for phones and tablets.
Earlier this year, BlackBerry unveiled a new Secusmart-equipped tablet that lets government and corporate clients use popular apps like YouTube and WhatsApp while still keeping confidential work information secure. The tablet will be available later this year, BlackBerry said.
BlackBerry shares rose six cents Tuesday, closing at $12.31 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Agencies/Canadajournal
