In In a move expected to help expand its enterprise mobile capabilities, IBM has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Worklight, a privately held Israel-based provider of mobile software for smartphones and tablets.
Financial terms were not disclosed in a release posted on the company's website.
With this acquisition, IBM's mobile offerings will span mobile application development, integration, security and management, notes the announcement. Worklight will become an important piece of IBM's mobility strategy, offering clients an open platform that helps speed the delivery of existing and new mobile applications to multiple devices. It also helps enable secure connections between smartphone and tablet applications with enterprise IT systems.
In a recent study conducted by IBM of more than 3,000 global CIOs, 75 percent of respondents identified mobility solutions as one of their top spending priorities. In fact, for the first time ever, shipments of smartphones exceeded total PC shipments in 2011.
Our clients are under increased pressure to meet the growing demands of a workforce and customer base that now treat mobility as mission critical to their business, said Marie Wieck, general manager, IBM application and infrastructure middleware. With the acquisition of Worklight, IBM is well-positioned to help clients become smarter mobile enterprises reaching new markets.
Worklight accelerates IBMs comprehensive mobile portfolio, which is designed to help global corporations leverage the proliferation of all mobile devices -- from laptops and smartphones to tablets. IBM has been investing in this space for more than a decade, both organically and through acquisitions.
Worklight supports consumer and employee-facing applications in a broad range of industries, including financial services, retail and healthcare. For example, a bank can create a single application that offers features to enable its customers to securely connect to their account, pay bills and manage their investments, regardless of the device they are using. Similarly, a hospital could use Worklight technology to extend its existing IT system to allow direct input of health history, allergies, and prescriptions by a patient using a tablet.
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