BlackBerry has acquired Movirtu, a provider of virtual identity solutions for mobile operators, to improve the adoption of bring-your-own device (BYOD) and corporate owned personally enabled (COPE).
Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.
Following the acquisition, BlackBerry will offer the new Virtual SIM capabilities through mobile operators to provide customers with multiple identity based service offerings.
BlackBerry will support the deployment of Movirtu technology by mobile operators on all major smartphone operating systems like iOS, Android and BlackBerry.
Movirtu’s solutions allow multiple numbers to be active on a single device, improving device management in BYOD and COPE environments. Employees can use both a business number and personal number on a single device, with separate billing for voice, data and messaging on each number.
The acquisition complements BlackBerry’s Secure Work Space, BlackBerry Balance and other partitioning technologies, which give employees the freedom and privacy they want for their personal use while delivering the security and management needed for business use.
With Movirtu, employees can switch between profiles for calls, data and messages, while on their home network and in roaming situations
Additionally, in conjunction with the BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) platform, enterprise customers will be able to apply IT policies to the business number without impacting the usability of the device for personal use.
“In a BYOD and COPE world, there remain a number of efficiency and convenience challenges facing enterprises, employees and mobile operators alike,” said John Chen, executive chairman and CEO, BlackBerry.
“The acquisition of Movirtu complements our core strategy of providing additional value added services, and it will leverage our key assets, including our BES platform, along with our existing global infrastructure which is connected to a large number of mobile operators around the world,” Chen added.