Just over a year after buying Irish mobile software company NewBay for US$100m, troubled Canadian smartphone maker Research in Motion (RIM) has sold the company to expanding mobile cloud operator Synchronoss for a reduced sum of US$55.5m in cash, nearly half of what it paid for the company more than a year ago.
RIM, which is about to release its new BlackBerry 10 smartphone operating system, sold NewBay during the Christmas holidays.
At the time of the original acquisition in October 2011, NewBay employed 200 people worldwide and had built up an impressive customer footprint of mobile operators worldwide.
The acquisition will give Synchronoss, a New Jersey-headquartered company, considerable capabilities in mobile platform enablement.
NewBay, which former Baltimore Technologies executive Paddy Houlihan founded in 2002, develops software for mobile phones, PCs and tablets and provides white label software to allow mobile operators to deliver digital content and social media to consumers.
Its LifeCache platform powers cloud-based services to store and share digital content to any internet-connected device.
Synchronoss’ technology allows its customers to connect, synchronise and activate connected devices and services that empower enterprises and consumers to live in a connected world.
The company recently announced phase 2 of an expansion plan in Galway that will see the creation of 30 new R&D jobs. Synchronoss first established its R&D Operations Centre in Galway in 2010.
BlackBerry image via Shutterstock
