Mobile email provider Visto has made a deal with Motorola to take enterprise messaging outfit Good Technologies off their hands. The deal gives Visto a leg up in its efforts to compete with Canada’s Research in Motion in the enterprise and government communications sector; Good Technology makes solutions for wireless messaging, mobile VPN connectivity, along with handheld device security and management. Visto isn’t saying how much it’s paying fro Good Technologies, but Motorola paid over $400 million for them back in 2007. The deal will roughly double Visto’s employee base to more than 400 people.
“This transaction marks another important milestone in Visto’s emergence as a worldwide leader for mobile access to applications and content, especially messaging and collaboration data,” said Visto CEO Brian Bogosian, in a statement.
Although once a major force in the mobile handset market with the popularity of the RAZR line, Motorola has been struggling to keep its handset business afloat as the operation hemorrhages money and, so far, has failed to make a dent in the burgeoning smartphone market. Motorola is now betting heavily on Google’s Android platform as a way to resurrect its business.
The company’s decision to divest itself of enterprise-focused service offerings mirrors Nokia’s own decision to kill off its business Intellisync services after buying the company in late 2005, although Nokia continues to build its consumer-oriented consumer-oriented communications services.
A year ago, Visto settled a patent dispute with Microsoft over mobile email technology, with Microsoft licensing Visto patents.
Visto says it expects to close the deal for Good Technologies by the end of February.
