BlackBerry Evolved
Acquiring Good Technology enhances BlackBerry’s software status and, as noted, removes a distracting bit of competition. The end result will be stronger productivity, a greater management product portfolio, enhanced offensive and defensive patent protection in the space and a future example that the company is aggressively investing in software while it is pulling back from hardware. In short, this deal gives BlackBerry a steady platform from which to fight and a more robust set of messages to fight with.
BlackBerry Plus Good Technology
BlackBerry and Good Technology are attempting one of the easiest mergers to accomplish—competition elimination. But while this last is the easiest to execute on paper, because it is between two hostile entities, it is far harder to get done. The Oracle PeopleSoft acquisition showcased just how painful this can be. In the case of BlackBerry and Good Technology, though, it appears that both CEOs realized that the fight, should it continue, would make recovery far more difficult, and so both moved to do what is actually best for both firms in terms of pooling resources. What I find interesting here is that the CEOs from BlackBerry and Good Technology put aside their differences to do what was best for both firms. That doesn’t happen very often, which makes this move even more worth watching, because the customers, Good employees and investors will all get a lot better outcome than if either company had put up a fight.