RIM buys mobile productivity app maker Dataviz

By Geoff Duncan September 9, 2010

Image used with permission by copyright holder

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has acquired the assets and most of the employees of DataViz, a long-standing company that has focused on document and file format conversion software. In the mobile arena, Dataviz is the maker of Documents To Go, which enables BlackBerry, iOS, Android, and Maemo devices to tap into Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and PDF files on smartphones and other devices. Although many devices can view these document formats, Documents To Go enables users to edit and write the files.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but some industry watchers put the value of the deal between $45 and $50 million. RIM’s only comment is that the acquisition was “not material to RIM in the context of RIM’s financial results.”

News of the acquisition comes shortly after Dataviz announced it would not be bringing Documents To Go to Palm’s webOS, citing lack of technical support from Palm and Hewlett-Packard.

The Dataviz acquisition is the latest in a string for RIM: it recently acquired Cellmania in a bid to amp up BlackBerry App World, and last spring acquired QNX—whose operating system may become the basis of RIM’s rumored “BlackPad” tablet device.

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