BlackBerry to Buy WatchDox

By Dana Mattioli 

BlackBerry Ltd. announced Tuesday it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy document-security firm WatchDox Inc.

BlackBerry will pay around $70 million for WatchDox, one of the people with knowledge of the deal told The Wall Street Journal. BlackBerry did not disclose the terms of the transaction.

WatchDox, which is privately held, makes software that allows companies to share and protect their files across a number of devices.

BlackBerry has been making small, so-called tuck-in acquisitions since the company abandoned plans to sell itself in 2013 for $4.7 billion. Instead, the Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker took a $1 billion investment from a group led by major shareholder Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and replaced its chief executive with John Chen, former chief executive of enterprise software company Sybase Inc. BlackBerry currently has a $5.3 billion market value.

Since rebuffing the buyout offer, BlackBerry has focused on mobile security software and smartphones, which are areas that WatchDox would help bolster.

Write to Dana Mattioli at [e-mail]

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