Many market watchers like myself have been predicting that consolidation was looming in the MDM space - with Symantec's acquisition of Odyssey Software, we finally have some validation. The MDM segment of the enterprise mobility ecosystem is definitely one of the more mature and crowded ones. Odyssey's tenure, sizeable customer base and well regarded solutions made it an attractive target for acquisition. Mobile specialists such as Odyssey are being watched and evaluated regularly by firms such as Symantec. In fact, the company announced last week that it had pulled the trigger on yet another deal - just 11 days after revealing it had acquired Odyssey, Symantec announced that it had acquired Nukona.
For Symantec, Odyssey + Nukona is only the beginning of its mobility push
With its acquistion of Nukona, a private, ~20 person firm with an elegant and powerful mobile application management solution, Symantec has demonstrated that it recognizes the importance of having a tactical M&A strategy. Nukona is a young company, and yet just 12 short months after emerging from stealth mode, several vendors were focusing on the company and had them on their radar - not for a large customer base, but for its IP and executive talent.
While Symantec is fairly active with its M&A strategy (the company has acquired ~20 companies in the last 5 years) Nukona and Odyssey are Symantec's first "pure-play" mobile acquisitions. This move signals that Symantec saw an opportunity to expand and diversify its mobile product solution portfolio. Indeed, these acquisitions deliver expanded mobile platform coverage (i.e., Android and Windows Phone 7), as well as the ability to offer its customers core enterprise-grade mobility solution components. I'm looking forward to the company's launch of its Secure App Centernext month, and expect more innovation from the mobile team that is coming together.