Elsa Lion
Motorola to acquire Good Technology
Motorola announced on Friday that it has signed a definitive agreement under which the device manufacturer will acquire Good Technology, a US-based enterprise mobile email and mobile middleware provider. With Good Technology fitting in to Motorola's Mobile Device Business the acquisition is expected to close in early 2007. Comment: Coming shortly after the Symbol acquisition, this acquisition suggests that Motorola is on an enterprise technology buying spree. The acquisition also demonstrates that independent mobile email suppliers are now fulfilling their ambition of being integrated into much larger businesses.Crucially, this acquisition may provide the value add that Motorola needs to differentiate its enterprise handsets. The two companies must have worked together on the Motorola Q handset and its success with Good Technology's customers may have also highlighted the fact that enterprise devices are harder to sell without mobile applications and middleware than when packaged around horizontal or vertical offerings. It is no secret in the industry that this is the main reason behind RIM's success. The business model chosen to sell email and mobile applications is often more important than the product itself. Motorola almost certainly did not acquire Good Technology to resell its software, but to bundle its software with its devices to increase their appeal. The deal also makes a lot of sense for Good Technology as a software company. Motorola's scale means its software will be more widely distributed. Equally, Motorola may decide to leverage Good Technology's existing partners, particularly in Europe, where Good Technology was distributed by IT resellers and even a few Microsoft Exchange resellers in some countries.Good was always going to struggle to build scale in the highly competitive mobile market, especially as a close competitor to RIM. It targets the same segments as RIM and is highly exposed to the various IP patents quarrels that have marred the industry over the past few years. RIM won its lawsuit against Good a few years ago, which prevented the company from developing and distributing its own Blackberry-like handset. This meant that for a while, RIM also had access to Good Technology's books. This and the difficulty for Good to provide an end-to-end mobile email product meant that it had little chance of reaching the same heights as RIM.Will Motorola successfully integrate Good Technology or will it swallow it whole? The benefits may not become immediately apparent and there is a risk that Motorola may not make the most of Good's assets. However, device manufacturers are now almost obliged to offer mobile email as part of their enterprise portfolio. This acquisition makes sense because the development route is so fraught with dangers and because Motorola seems finally determined to crack the enterprise market.
