Disqus
Last week, there was a pretty solid rumour that Research In Motion had acquired a developer partner called DataViz, who had handled the document viewing/editing suite preloaded on BlackBerry smartphones. At the time it was just a rumour, RIM has confirmed the acquisition in a statement, saying “RIM has acquired some of the assets of DataViz and hired the majority of its employees to focus on supporting the BlackBerry platform. … Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the transaction was not material to RIM in the context of RIM’s financial results.” Although the details weren’t relayed, the initial rumour pegged the acquisition price as $50 million.
On top of providing mobile access to Microsoft Office files from PowerPoint, PDF, Word, and Excel, DataViz also made push e-mail apps for Android and iPhone, which will probably get axed in short order as the programmers switch gears to work on the BlackBerry infrastructure.
[via Digital Daily]
UPDATE: RIM has only acquired certain assets of DataViz, not the whole company, according to a statement. iPhone and Android products will continue to be supported.
About The Author
Simon Sage
Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.
