It looks like BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBR) (TSE:BB) may have finally made one right prediction. Hugo Miller of Bloomberg reports that the company revealed a key acquisition today which shows its plan to profit from its popular messaging app. If this acquisition pays off for BlackBerry, BBM will become even more important to the company.
BlackBerry acquires Scroon
The struggling Canadian company acquired the software developer Scroon back in May. Bloomberg data indicates that this was the first publicly announced acquisition by the company in over a year. The startup company handles social media accounts for major clients, including Louis Vuitton, Orange SA and Warner Bros. The financial terms of the acquisition were not revealed.
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) finally was able to roll out its popular messaging app to iOS and Android devices recently. BlackBerry Messenger had a bumpy ride during the early days of the rollout when it was put on hold, but the company revealed that users of both competing platforms overwhelmingly accepted BBM, downloading it millions of times. It has also revealed staggering engagement metrics since rolling the app out to iOS and Android devices.
How Scroon will help BBM
A spokesperson for BlackBerry told Bloomberg that Scroon is part of their plans to profit from BBM, which is one of their only profitable segments. Earlier this year, executives from BlackBerry said that they would eventually add new channels which would work like themed chat rooms. These new channels would provide advertisers with opportunities to target their users through sponsored posts.
Scroon executives never revealed the fact that the company had been acquired by BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) because of all the problems BlackBerry was having. Its new BlackBerry 10 phones were a major flop, and then in August, the company said it would consider strategic alternatives to its current operations. Fairfax Financial made a tentative offer to take BlackBerry private, but that offer fell through, and the company announced new management and a plan to focus more on business customers.
