In less then a year, BlackBerry have made four major acquisitions to enhance their software portfolio, spending a large amount of capital acquiring big companies.
Back in May of last year, BlackBerry bought WatchDox, a secure data sync and share company for the enterprises and followed this up by acquiring AtHoc, a networked crisis communications provider, in July 2015.
In November 2015, the company splashed out $425 million acquiring Good Technology, a rival in the enterprise mobility management (EMM) space, which is currently in the process of being integrated with the rest of BlackBerry’s portfolio.
Finally, in February of this year, BlackBerry bought cyber security company Encription, which will form the basis of BlackBerry’s new consulting practice, the Professional Cybersecurity Services.
However, BlackBerry is not currently planning to continue with this spree of acquisitions as, according to Carl Wiese, president, global sales at BlackBerry, the company now believes it has most major areas covered and is now looking at a “pause” in its acquisitions strategy.
“We’ve done a lot, so we’re much more focused around the integration piece of that,” says Wiese.
The company is now looking at cases where it makes “perfect sense” to make an acquisition.
“We’re not looking for some big category that we don’t have,” says Wiese. “We’re being very selective in terms of where it plugs in. Right now, we’re not looking for the next big thing.”
BlackBerry now feels that with these acquisitions it has a fairly comprehensive software portfolio and the company will focus on integrating its now fairly extensive software portfolio rather than acquiring for the time being.
