[zyben]

Synchronoss Technologies Announces Acquisition of NewBay | Business Wire

BRIDGEWATER, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNCR), the mobile innovation company that provides activation and mobile content management solutions for connected devices, today announced that it has acquired NewBay, a wholly owned subsidiary of Research in Motion Limited. NewBay is a leader in cloud services, enabling mobile operators and service providers to deliver content experiences across connected devices such as smartphones, tablets, PC’s and TV’s. NewBay’s cloud services are delivered to millions of user and stores billions of media files for live operator services around the world.

In consideration for the acquisition, Synchronoss paid $55.5 million in cash to Research in Motion Limited, and there was no assumption of cash or debt. The transaction closed at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012.

"By adding NewBay's technology assets and millions of subscribers, this transaction further establishes Synchronoss as the clear leader in providing cloud based mobile content services for mobile operators around the world. By combining our strengths, Synchronoss will deliver the most comprehensive, scalable and secure cloud platform, and we will significantly expand our early market share leadership position,” said Stephen G. Waldis, Chief Executive Officer of Synchronoss.

Waldis added, “We are excited to bolster our international presence through the acquisition of NewBay, including a major European mobile operator in the early stages of a significant planned expansion. Additionally, we welcome other international customers that will be new to Synchronoss. We believe that the combination of NewBay and Synchronoss will further ensure the success of the significant cloud services launch being prepared at Verizon Wireless, which remains on schedule.”

NewBay provides an open, white label software platform that powers cloud-based services for storing, sharing, accessing and organizing digital content across any Internet connected device. The company’s technology platform empowers customers to deliver user content services such as social networking, digital vault, photo and video albums, network address book, notification and converged messaging services. Synchronoss’ mobile content cloud platform will be able to leverage many capabilities developed by NewBay, including those related to illicit content protection, legal intercept, copyright, antivirus and transcoding among others. In addition, joint customers will benefit from Synchronoss’ proven track record of taking best-of-breed technologies and scaling them to the highest levels demanded by Tier 1 carriers in order to deliver a world class customer experience.

NewBay’s European customers include a group level implementation at Vodafone Group, in addition to Orange, Swisscom, T-Mobile; U.S. customers include AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and US Cellular; and AsiaPac customers include LG Electronics and Telstra.

Synchronoss expects the acquisition will be neutral to slightly accretive, on a non-GAAP basis, to its full year 2013 financial results. Non-GAAP results exclude stock-based compensation expense, amortization of intangibles associated with acquisitions, non-recurring professional fees associated with closing acquisitions and the purchase accounting reduction to deferred revenue associated with acquired companies. Additionally, for GAAP purposes, Synchronoss expects to incur a restructuring charge in the first quarter of 2013 related to the acquisition of NewBay.

The company will provide additional financial details related to the NewBay acquisition on its fourth quarter 2012 financial results conference call, which is expected to occur in early February. At this time, the company will also provide revenue and profitability expectations, including contribution from NewBay, for both the first quarter and full year 2013. Additionally, Synchronoss plans to host its first analyst and investor day at the company’s headquarters in New Jersey during mid-February. Details for both the fourth quarter financial results conference call and analyst and investor day will be issued in subsequent press releases.

[lc474]

didn't Rim pay $100 million for them? Are they taking a $45 million loss on them?

[TheStoof]

didn't Rim pay $100 million for them? Are they taking a $45 million loss on them?

Sunk cost. Move along.

[BThunderW]

They probably took what was needed from NewBay to integrate into the BlackBerry 10 platform and sold off the rest.

[Jtaylor1986]

QUOTE=lc474;7807557]didn't Rim pay $100 million for them? Are they taking a $45 million loss on them?[/QUOTE]

Hard to say without knowing if they kept assets or sold it as they bought it.

[Majestic Lion]

And away...we...go.

[TheStoof]

And away...we...go.

Ha...ha...ha....and you thought my jokes were bad.

[randall2580]

Where there's smoke there's fire. Expected. I think RIM has come to see they can accomplish more with partnerships then they can through acquisitions.

[GTiLeo]

the cash may not be the full deal, i'd liek to know more info, crackberry team find out more google pulls up nothing as of yet about the sale of NewBay

[Bla1ze]

the cash may not be the full deal, i'd liek to know more info, crackberry team find out more google pulls up nothing as of yet about the sale of NewBay

Full details won't come out until the SEC filings.

[Acumenight]

They probably took what was needed from NewBay to integrate into the BlackBerry 10 platform and sold off the rest.

Fingers crossed this is what happened...

[CairnsRock]

Buffalo hunting. Take the skin and chuck the rest away.

[dentynefire]

It will be interesting to see if the executive team from RIM remain.

[sirfly2fly]

Well two formers RIM employees are at CEO and CFO so a good relationship for the future to see them integrated w/o owning the company?..

[zyben]

It's possible that cloud management services for RIM are included in the deal. As mentioned above, we'll have to wait for further details.

[GTiLeo]

It's possible that cloud management services for RIM are included in the deal. As mentioned above, we'll have to wait for further details.

thats what i was thinkign when i said the cash might not be the full deal, it was done with RIM and Harmon when RIM bought QNX, Harmon still has a license to use QNX

[greatwiseone]

Totally didn't see this coming (thought they had decided to keep it by putting two exec's into the company); no huge loss. I never quite saw how Newbay would fit anyways.

[John Arnold]

Good article in some paper talking about how Dropbox is clobbering the competition (google, iCloud, etc). RIM might have seen this and decided to pursue 'partnership' over 'ownership'.

[ridemaster]

after reading the article any many other in the past, i would say RIMM took what they needed and wanted(could be patent portfolio which holds value) and sold off the company based on a reduced total value. makes sense to me.

im sure we will see some new stuff from RIMM from this whole purchase and sell deal.

go RIMM go

[trsbbs]

Let's see,RIM has to pay Nokia for some patients.

RIM sells Newbay for $55 million.

Simple.

Tim

Sent from my BlackBerry Playbook

[travaz]

I posted this in a thread that was started before 12/25 I still think it is valid
I am no M&A expert but when you sell a company you can strip what you want and fly the flag and see what you get. I hope Chris Umi weighs in on this but my guess is that they got something of potentially great value and sold off the rest with a nice tax write off as a loss. The other scenario is that the new leadership didnt see it as a gain and sold it as a loss for the tax write off. Also the other company that bought it was looking to increase subscribers. It might have worked out well for both

Its never as simple as paid X and sold for Y

[Balti43]

Let's see,RIM has to pay Nokia for some patients.

RIM sells Newbay for $55 million.

Simple.

Tim

Sent from my BlackBerry Playbook

Exactly my thoughts, now RIM only owes NOKIA 10 mil.

[dentynefire]

thats what i was thinkign when i said the cash might not be the full deal, it was done with RIM and Harmon when RIM bought QNX, Harmon still has a license to use QNX

LMAO they have rights for 20 years! Talk about knowing when you have a good thing. And, tell me how this is bad (having Harmon use QNX in their products) for RIM

This is a segment from RIMs MD&A for their current filing:
RIM will identify its BlackBerry subscriber base as the total of all BlackBerry
subscriber accounts that are provisioned to access BlackBerry services, regardless of whether RIM is receiving infrastructure access
fees from each such subscriber in any given month. The Company believes this change will better reflect the base of BlackBerry users
that may contribute to service revenues in the future, whether solely through infrastructure access fees or the integrated service and
software offering being developed.

Obviously infrastructure refers to the NOC (BIS and BES) but the integrated service and software must be referring to BBM Desktop and maybe Automotive. They need to be able to connect the two I thought NewBay would be the logical connector. They are developing ODS (open data spaces) but that doesn't seem likely to replace the features NewBay had. Also I don' think auto manufacturers would go for a BB10 only solution meaning BBM Desktop needs to be cross platform - Windows/Mac and Android,IOS,BB10. I just don't know how they could tie everything together with out them.

[Rootbrian]

Damn. Knew something was going to happen and newbay was it.

[randall2580]

after reading the article any many other in the past, i would say RIMM took what they needed and wanted(could be patent portfolio which holds value) and sold off the company based on a reduced total value. makes sense to me.

im sure we will see some new stuff from RIMM from this whole purchase and sell deal.

go RIMM go

I am curious as to what you read that lead you to believe this? When I read the press release from the acquiring company, they are bragging that New Bay will do everything they have been doing, I don't see any reduced functionality there - or any indication that RIM kept IP.