Enterprise push: Nokia buys Intellisync

Mobile handset and equipment giant Nokia announced it has signed an agreement to acquire push e-mail vendor Intellisync, in a $430 million deal that will supplement Nokia’s nascent mobile enterprise efforts. The acquisition also is a rare overt confirmation by a major handset maker that the mobile enterprise future will be one of multiple device types and technology protocols.

“We formed our enterprise group in early 2004 with the goal of creating a franchise in enterprise mobility,” said Mary McDowell, executive vice president and general manager, Nokia's Enterprise Solutions business group, in announcing the acquisition earlier today. “This acquisition will help us accelerate our goal.”

Prior to the Intellisync deal, Nokia’s most recent nod to the enterprise was the development of its E-Series devices, and the Nokia Business Center software package, which supports push e-mail and collaborative enterprise applications. Intellisync has solutions in the areas of push e-mail, synchronization and device management software, and the 12-year-old company has garnered several major carrier contracts in the increasingly competitive mobile enterprise application market.

Those deals include some with CDMA carriers like Verizon Wireless, which McDowell said is an added benefit that will help strengthen Nokia’s relationships and efforts with such carriers. However, she added, “[The deal] is not intended to be a back door into an incremental increase in device sales.”

Rather, it appears that Nokia is buying into the device-agnostic approach to the mobile enterprise that Intellisync and other companies of its kind have been preaching. “Multi-device amd multi-platform support is something that is very important to the IT departments of these corporate enterprises,” McDowell said.

Nokia has ongoing relationships with Intellisync competitors, such as Research in Motion, which maintains the leadership position in the push e-mail market, and McDowell said the acquisition will not affect those relationships because mobile operators continue to demand multi-vendor approaches. Nokia doesn’t plan on erasing the Intellisync brand, she said.

For Intellisync, the Nokia acquisition is a validation of the smaller company’s progress in a competitive market, as well as important backing from a handset giant that has it own share of relationships with carriers who are looking to further penetrate the enterprise market. “Bringing the resources of Nokia to Intellisync is going to be a good thing for the carriers,” said Woody Hobbs, president and CEO of Intellisync.

"With a platform-independent and device-agnostic mobile software offering, Intellisync has long been committed to delivering on the mobility needs of wireless carriers and enterprises and we've built a leadership brand in the mobile marketplace. Intellisync's market leadership in platform-independent push email, device and systems management, mobile application deployment, integrated messaging, data and file synchronization, and mobile security is validation of the company's success with carriers and enterprise customers alike." Under the terms of the agreement, Intellisync stockholders will receive $5.25 per share in cash for each Intellisync common share, implying an enterprise value of approximately $430 million or approximately EUR 368 million (on a fully-diluted basis). The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2006. Intellisync was founded in 1993 and has approximately 450 employees.