BlackBerry to buy WatchDox data security business, R&D centre in Israel

A BlackBerry event in London on Jan. 30, 2013. (Lefteris Pitarakis / AP)

WATERLOO, Ont. -- BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSX:BB) says it has a definitive agreement to buy WatchDox Ltd. for an undisclosed price.

WatchDox products are designed to give organizations control over how files are edited, copied, printed or forwarded from mobile and desktop devices.

Among other things, WatchDox gives administrators the ability to lock or remove access to files compromised in a data breach.

The company has its headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., and a research centre in Israel, which is expected to become the basis of a new security-focused BlackBerry R&D centre.

BlackBerry says the WatchDox technology will be offered as a value-added service and available with its BlackBerry Enterprise Server software, one of the smartphone company's main products for organizations.