IBM buys Worklight for mobility strategy

   IBM has entered an agreement to buy Worklight, an Israel-based enterprise mobile applications development firm.
   IBM said Worklight will become an “important piece of IBM’s mobility strategy,” and estimates in the Israeli press put the company’s value at about $70 million.
   Worklight builds HTML5 apps plus the middleware and security features to support them, including data management and analytics services. The HTML5 platform allows apps to work on nearly all mobile devices and other hardware connected to the Internet or a private cloud.
   “Developers create one code base to deploy to multiple devices running iOS, Android, Windows and others, and can exploit native device features. This approach brings down the cost of mobile development,” the company said.
   IBM has recently expanded into the enterprise space largely through acquisitions, such as its February Emptoris buy. IBM also launched Endpoint Manager for mobile devices software, a security feature for mobile devices used in enterprise. More about IBM’s push in to this space can be found in the February American Shipper story “Big Blue supply chain.” — Geoff Whiting