Research In Motion to buy Ireland's NewBay for reported $100 million

Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones, yesterday cut a deal to buy Ireland's NewBay, a provider of photo, video, and social-network tools for smartphones.

RIM did not disclose terms of the acquisition, but The Wall Street Journal blog All Things D suggested that the Ontario, Canada-based company paid around $100 million.

Founded in 2002 and based in Dublin, privately-held NewBay develops mobile-phone software that allows users to create, store, and share digital content in the cloud. Its flagship LifeCache software is used by 80 million subscribers worldwide.

Its software is used by telecom carriers like Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile USA, Deutsche Telekom, US Cellular, Telefónica O2, France Telecom Orange, and Telstra, who use this software to provide services such as online photo albums, automatic updating of social network status, and online address books.

The company has offices in the US, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Australia, and South Korea. The company had revenues of $24.3 million in 2009 and net loss of $3.6 million.

RIM's intent of buying NewBay is to offer BlackBerry users with cloud-based content service, which is already being offered by its rivals like Apple, Google and Amazon.