Redwood City: Visto, a leading mobile push and synchronisation platform for service providers, Tuesday announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Good Technology from Motorola Inc. The deal is expected to close within a week.

The acquisition will help Visto grow its user base to better compete against Blackberry-maker Research In Motion (RIM), which dominates the mobile email market.

Good Technology specialises in offering wireless messaging, mobile VPN data access, device management and handheld security for enterprise customers worldwide. The addition of Good's extensive service offerings in the US, Europe and Asia will enable Visto to provide its government and enterprise customers with the benefits of a broader range of solutions.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but according to market speculations, the deal will fetch far less than the $500 million that the handset maker paid when it bought Good Technology in January 2007.

The acquisition will enable Visto to expand its range of services such as wireless messaging, mobile virtual private network data access, device management and handheld security.

It will also propel Visto as a global leader in the delivery of a full range of secure, mobile messaging solutions for enterprises through mobile operators and original equipment manufacturers (OEM).

"This transaction marks another important milestone in Visto's emergence as a worldwide leader for mobile access to applications and content, especially messaging and collaboration data," Brian A Bogosian, Visto's CEO, said.

''As a result of this transaction, Visto will now provide customers in over 100 countries an open, robust and secure mobile experience for enterprise customers, on over 400 different mobile devices," he said.

"We believe that this transaction is in the best interest of our customers, employees and shareholders," said Gene Delaney, president of Motorola's Enterprise Mobility Solutions.

"Visto's acquisition of Good will allow Motorola to continue to concentrate on providing best-in-class business-critical applications, secure management platforms and mobility services that empower the individual with the right information at the right time to streamline business processes and improve results."

Visto has extensive relationships with mobile operators throughout Europe, North America, and Asia, such as AT&T, Elisa, Rogers Wireless, Qtel, SmarTone, SFR, Softbank Mobile, Sprint, TELUS, T-Mobile, Turkcell and the Vodafone Group.

Good, through its relationships with US mobile carriers, has implementations with thousands of enterprises, including many of the Fortune 500 with a high concentration of the Fortune 50.

Visto's patented mobile platform with ConstantSync technology works in real time with popular email and social networking services for personal and business use, providing maximum control and flexibility for the operator and choice for the customer.

Motorola bought Good Technology when it was riding high on the runaway popularity of its Razr handset. According to some reports Good Technology eventually became a victim of management woes at Motorola, which merged the messaging firm with Symbol Technologies. The merged units were a misfit, with corporate email failing to gain traction among its retail, delivery services and industrial clients.

Visto, established in 1996, hopes to bulk up its offerings for secure mobile messaging solutions for the enterprise through mobile operators and handset OEMs

Motorola offers broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to high-definition video and mobile devices. The company had sales of US $30.1 billion in 2008.

Mounting losses
However, Motorola was in dire straits after it reported a loss of $3.6 billion for the fourth quarter, and a revenue of $7.14 billion, a 26 per cent decline from last year. In its Mobile Devices division, Motorola's revenue fell to $2.35 billion, a 51 per cent drop.

For the full year, mobile device sales plummeted 36 per cent to $12.1 billion compared with 2007. In the quarter, Motorola shipped 19.2 million handsets and estimated its global market share in mobile handsets is now roughly 6.5 per cent.

However, the company's Enterprise Mobility Solutions division saw sales increase 4 per cent in the fourth quarter to $2.2 billion and full-year sales jump 5 per cent to $8.1 billion.

To combat decline in sales Motorola has said it plans to launch several next-generation devices during the fourth quarter of 2009. It is also planning to focus heavily on social networking features in its future mobile device road map.

Earlier while releasing the results, Sanjay Jha, Motorola co-CEO and CEO of the Mobile Devices unit, said that the company will continue to look for ways to cut costs from its Mobile Devices division as it looks to save more than $1.2 billion this year.

"We are aggressively developing innovative new products, and we are encouraged by the positive customer feedback on our smartphone road map," he said.

Looking to the first quarter of 2009, Motorola said it expects losses, excluding reorganisation costs. Losses are expected to continue at between 10 cents and 12 cents per share.

Last month, the company said it would cut 4,000 jobs, or 6 per cent of its workforce. The latest round of cuts came just months after Motorola slashed 3,000 jobs. Motorola also said it would suspend its quarterly dividend.