BlackBerry to buy anti-spy tool used by Angela Merkel

BlackBerry Ltd, pushing further into security services, has agreed to buy Secusmart GmbH, a provider of anti-eavesdropping technology whose clients include German officials such as Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Secusmart, a Düsseldorf, Germany-based company that already had a partnership with BlackBerry, makes voice and data encryption for mobile phones. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

The acquisition is BlackBerry’s first since the hiring last November of chief executive John Chen, who vowed to cut losses by focusing on services to corporations and governments. Now, having stabilised the Waterloo, Ontario-based company, Chen said in an interview yesterday that he was laying the groundwork for hiring and sales growth. With Secusmart, BlackBerry aims to capitalise on demand for spy-proofing technology in the wake of revelations about US government surveillance tactics, including allegations that Merkel’s mobile phone was tapped.

The deal is still subject to regulatory approval. Chen said he’s confident Germany will approve the sale, especially since the government already uses BlackBerry phones and software.

At a time of backlash against US companies, including the German government’s decision not to renew a Verizon Communications Inc contract, Chen said it doesn’t hurt being a Canadian company. Germany’s government has already distributed about 3,000 encrypted smartphones made by BlackBerry to federal officials, and has plans to order more such devices, Tobias Plate, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said yesterday at a news conference in Berlin.

Last month, Germany’s top prosecutor said it would start a formal investigation into whether US intelligence agents tapped Merkel’s phone. The White House has said agents aren’t spying on Merkel and has pledged not to do so in the future.

Chen’s goal is to return BlackBerry to profitability by the company’s next fiscal year, which ends in March 2016. The company is seeking to counter declining demand for its phones by focusing on supplying software and hardware to customers in regulated industries which have higher standards for security and risk management.