BlackBerry and Samsung quickly denied a Reuters report this week that executives of the two companies had met about a possible acquisition. But the once-mighty Canadian mobile vendor may need a suitor if it can’t weather its current transition, and Samsung could gain a lot from BlackBerry’s security assets and enterprise relationships.
BlackBerry’s biggest asset is its security technology, including secure data centers around the world. Its security credentials keep U.S. President Barack Obama and other government and military users on BlackBerrys.
A tie-up with Samsung might fit BlackBerry’s long-term strategy, too. Though BlackBerry still sells handsets, it sees its future growth in enterprise software and services. Much of its software already works on multiple platforms, including Android and iOS.
Meanwhile, its security, device management and messaging products could complement Samsung’s phone lineup and Knox security platform, he said. Samsung could also gain access to many lucrative enterprise customers that are tied to BlackBerry today.
BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is the gold standard for securing and managing mobile business communications, having been deployed by thousands of private and public organizations around the world. This market is unglamorous but reliably profitable, and Samsung has already demonstrated an appetite for it with its own Knox initiative on Android. Knox showed early momentum with approval for use by the US Department of Defense in 2013, however, its security has since been called into question by a series of discovered vulnerabilities.
The crown jewel of BlackBerry’s remaining assets is the QNX software platform. Noted for its security and flexibility, QNX is the predominant software used in modern car infotainment systems, even providing the basis for Apple’s CarPlay and recently supplanting Microsoft in Ford’s Sync 3. Samsung is going after the connected car and QNX is already there. Instead of fighting an uphill battle against the better software designers at Apple and Google, Samsung can establish a strong position for itself in smart vehicles by providing the platform underpinning middleware like CarPlay and Android Auto.
In addition, BlackBerry is a growing player in the Internet of Things, a field Samsung is intensely interested in. BlackBerry’s QNX operating system is used in many automotive systems, including the next generation of Ford’s Sync in-car infotainment platform, as well as in industrial equipment. Samsung’s IoT efforts have been more focused on the home so far.
Acquiring BlackBerry would carry risks, though. The vastly changed company faces challenges in making the transition to new software products and signing up customers for new services with per-user fees, Greengart said.
Competition for mobile enterprises from the Apple-IBM partnership may also heat up, according to Pund-IT’s King. That deal is intended to combine Apple’s mobile platforms with IBM applications and big-data analytics, giving Apple a way into more enterprises. With the first fruits of the deal coming out, the venture to has just begun.
