Motorola to attain ‘Good Technology’

Posing threats to Research In Motion's (RIM) highly addictive BlackBerry, Cell phone giant Motorola said Friday that it has agreed to buy Good Technology Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that provides mobile e-mail software and services.

The deal is expected to boost the prospects for Motorola’s new Q device as consumer demand for e-mail phones blow up.

"Motorola is making a concerted effort to go after RIM," said Lawrence Harris, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. "This acquisition gives them credibility. It's becoming more important to have your own e-mail solution," Harris said. "If you look at the reason for the success of RIM, it's not the devices. It's the end-to-end solution."

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, Motorola said Good would continue to provide its mobile e-mail technology to rivals. Over 12,000 companies use Good Technology's e-mail system that runs on devices made by Motorola, Palm and Nokia.

“The addition of Good Technology will advance Motorola's vision of seamless mobility,'' Ron Garriques, president of Motorola Mobile Devices, said in a statement announcing the deal. “Good Technology's solutions, talent and customers complement Motorola's business and extend our ability to deliver compelling products and services to enterprise customers.''

The ease of use and likeness to Microsoft's Outlook calendar software helped Good Technology's service gain popularity. The company began in 2000 with backing from the venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Benchmark Capital and over the years it has attracted big customers including Morgan Stanley, United Parcel Service and Wal-Mart Stores.

Corporate clients are being offered more devices that function as hand-held personal computers and as businesses seek to become more efficient the Demand for wireless e-mail devices by corporate customers is expected to rise.

Unconvinced that RIM could be displaced as the No. 1 provider to corporate wireless e-mail in the foreseeable future Harris said, “Longer term, I would not underestimate Motorola."

In New York, shares of Motorola closed up 16 cents at $21.36 while those of Research in Motion fell 64 cents to $124.11.