Blackberry has announced the purchase of Movirtu, a firm offering ‘virtual identity solutions’ which allows multiple phone numbers to be active on a single handset.
In addition to making its own smartphones, Blackberry offers a range of device management tools for corporate customers.
It says the purchase of Movirtu will help it offer more options to customers operating bring-your-own device (BYOD) policies by allowing the employee’s business and personal numbers to operate seamlessly on the same phone.
When used in conjunction with the BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) platform, customers will be able to apply IT policies to the business number without affecting the usability of the device for personal use.
“In a BYOD and COPE world, there remain a number of efficiency and convenience challenges facing enterprises, employees and mobile operators alike,” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO, BlackBerry.
“The acquisition of Movirtu complements our core strategy of providing additional value added services, and it will leverage our key assets, including our BES platform, along with our existing global infrastructure which is connected to a large number of mobile operators around the world.”