Why Do These Big EMM Companies Keep Eating Each Other?
Enterprise Mobile headlines have been filled with big news of some of the most well known EMM and MDM companies buying each other up. From BlackBerry and Good Technology to Dell acquiring EMC and in turn, AirWatch, what does this mean for the you the consumer?
This is how businesses tend to go: they can spring up out of no where and when the time comes, they become consumed by something bigger. But what happens if you’re using Good Technology in your enterprise and they are bought by BlackBerry?
There have been a lot more concerns on this topic recently with rumors that Dell may be in the market to buy Citrix. With these merges and take-overs the number of options for MDM providers, while still wide, is growing narrower. We’ve seen things like this happen before albeit in a more extreme manner with cable companies and the threat that Comcast was on the verge of consuming Time Warner cable. No matter what they say, deals like this are threatening to a consumer. Monopolies are something that consumers never want to see.
See where the buyers and the sellers landed on the 2015 Gartner Magic Quadrant for EMM. Who made out the best and where will the giants expect to land in 2016?
With MDM, things are a little less scary, but if you’re using one of these companies that has recently been bought, you have a right to be a little confused about where it is going and right now it’s a little hard to say. Bigger companies buy their competitors to either put them out of business and take some of their technology, or they keep them as a subsidiary .
With BlackBerry and Good Technology I have heard that they will be taking a more collaborative approach and not have BlackBerry completely consume Good, but there will certainly be some changes that will affect users.
If you find yourself in this situation, now or in the future, it’s a good idea to ask your MDM solutions provider what the plans are for the merge. Will anything change for you? When can you expect things to change? It’s also a good idea to inquire with the company that bought your MDM provider and see what they have to say about the merge. Their answers may vary, so you’re going to want to keep your eye on the situation to make sure your MDM provider is still going to be the one you want to work with once the company changes hand.
