What BlackBerry Really Gets for Buying WatchDox

Perhaps the big news about the deal is that BlackBerry believes that it has enough money and enough momentum to make another acquisition. The Wall Street Journal reported that BlackBerry is paying $70 million for WatchDox. Last September BlackBerry paid $32.5 million for Movirtu, another mobile software company, and $82 million for German firm Secusmart GmbH, a mobile encryption firm.

BlackBerry is showing signs of life by spending money, a stratagem that often leads to a lower share price. In this case, though, it is hardly moving the needle at all, and it is certainly not pushing the needle to new heights.

Here is what the company’s chief executive, John Chen, had to say about the acquisition:

This acquisition represents another key step forward as we transition BlackBerry into the premier platform for secure mobile communications software and applications, supporting all devices and operating systems.

BlackBerry has hitched its wagon to the mobile secure communications wagon, and thatis not such a bad play, but right now the company appears to be trying to carve out a niche of its own against bigger competitors like Citrix and other niche players like MobileIron. BlackBerry has not entirely missed the bus on this one, but it barely caught up to the bus as it was leaving the station.

ALSO READ: Why Check Point Could Be the Top Cybersecurity Stock Ahead

BlackBerry’s shares opened about 0.06% higher on the news, and by the end of the noon hour they were trading flat with Monday’s closing price of $10.00. Investors do not see much upside, obviously. The good news for BlackBerry is that investors don’t see a huge downside either.

The stock’s 52-week range is $7.16 to $12.63, and the consensus price target is $9.17. Most recommendations (20 of 36, according to Yahoo! Finance) rate the stock as a Hold with the next largest grouping (12) rating the shares as Underperform.