IBM to acquire Fiberlink Communications
IBM announced a definitive agreement to acquire Fiberlink Communications, a mobile management and security company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
With Fiberlink’s MaaS360 cloud-based offerings, IBM will expand its BYOD capabilities to deliver a complete mobile management and security solution through IBM MobileFirst that includes trusted transactions and security intelligence capabilities for mobile apps, users, content and data.
This announcement is another milestone in IBM’s strategy to build the industry’s most comprehensive set of mobile capabilities while eliminating barriers to adoption and accelerating the productivity benefits of mobility.
At the same time, IBM is expanding the vision for enterprise mobility management to also include secure transactions between businesses, partners and customers.
“In a mobile first world, clients require a comprehensive mobile management and security offering. Often times they integrate solutions on their own and take on unnecessary risk,” said Robert LeBlanc, IBM senior vice president, Middleware Software.
“To protect and enhance the complete mobile experience, it’s crucial to secure the app, user, content, data and the transaction. The acquisition of Fiberlink will enable us to offer these expanded capabilities to our clients, making it simple and quick to unlock the full potential of mobility,” LeBlanc added.
Today’s announcement builds on the IBM MobileFirst strategy of bringing all mobile resources together in one platform. For example, organizations of all sizes will be able to build secure apps by design with IBM Worklight and IBM Security AppScan, deliver trusted transactions through integrated threat intelligence with Trusteer, and improve the user experience with Tealeaf. Now organizations can break free from one-size-fits-all security strategies and create more flexible, personalized mobile experiences that balance enterprise security with user privacy.
MaaS360 will become part of IBM’s Software as a Service (SaaS) portfolio of more than 100 cloud services. IBM plans to offer MaaS360 on the IBM SoftLayer cloud infrastructure.