Blackberry, the once-dominant smartphone giant, announced on Thursday that it has acquired U.K.-based cyber security consultancy firm Encription as part of the company's ongoing thrust toward becoming one of the most formidable security enterprises in the world, according to ZD Net.
Blackberry began exploring software options when its smartphone business, which used to be the company's backbone, started losing out to rivals such as Samsung and Apple. Within a few years, Blackberry's market share in the smartphone world declined drastically, pulling the company's shares down significantly.
In order to become a profitable business once more, Blackberry began to repackage itself as the go-to firm for enterprise customers who are concerned about security, and so far, with its latest product, the Blackberry Priv, the company's gambit seems to have paid off, reports Tech Crunch.
With its acquisition of Encription, however, analysts have stated that it might be possible for Blackberry to forego its smartphone business altogether. After all, cyber security is a pretty lucrative business, with its annual earnings estimated at about $16.5 billion globally.
James Mackey, BlackBerry's head of corporate development, believes that the Encription acquisition is the next logical step for the company, reports Reuters via Yahoo! News.
"This is a natural extension of what we do right now. We're very excited about this new offering and we think it is highly complementary and a nice addition to our security portfolio," he said.
