After BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s smartphone business, now the company’s Enterprise Server is getting a tough time in the wake of fierce competition from the startup. They are rapidly adding customers and are successfully raising capital levels by capitalizing on the current trend where employees “increasingly bring their own phones to work,” according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
MobileIron raising fresh capital
MobileIron Inc is one of such companies that is looking forward to raise $50 million to penetrate into the new market. Based in Mountain View, California, the company is prepping to issue its IPO. MobileIron has expanded to more than 5,000 customers compared to 2,200 last year.
MobileIron is getting its funds from a group of investors that includes private-equity fund Northgate capital and the Venture-capital arm of Singapore’s SingTel Telecommunication Ltd. According to a source familiar to the company, investment values the company above $600 million.
Startups gaining rapidly
Earlier to MobileIron, Atlanta based Airwatch LLC raised $200 million, taking the company to a value of over $1 billion. According to Alan Dabbiere, Airwatch Chairman, there are 8,000 customers with the company with 500 rate of growth per month. Other startups in the same segment are BoxTone Inc. and Good Technology Inc.
Newly established companies are gaining turf in the area where BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) was once the dominating player. According to Research firm Gartner, Airwatch, MobileIron and CitrixSystems Inc are the leaders in mobile device management. BlackBerry was categorized into “niche players.”
“We feel like this market is just getting going, and we’re only in the second inning of this ballgame,” MobileIron Chief Executive Bob Tinker said in an interview. “That’s why we decided to raise additional growth capital.”
Startups are gearing up after BlackBerry came up with a special board committee to consider the strategic alternatives, which includes selling some parts of the company. It is possible that BlackBerry Enterprise server can be sold, which is valued between $1 billion and $2 billion.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is making its utmost efforts to maintain corporate clients and strike deals with the new ones. In April 2012, BlackBerry launched its Enterprise Server Solutions on other devices, as well. BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 enables a user to create work profile and a personal profile on the same phone. BlackBerry told earlier that 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies are using or testing the service.
