Research In Motion today announced that it is buying QNX Software Systems from Harman International. QNX is an Ottawa-based company with technology that develops in-vehicle audio and infotainment systems that include wireless services such as Internet radio, video-on-demand and navigation.
“In addition to our interests in expanding the opportunities for QNX in the automotive sector and other markets, we believe the planned acquisition of QNX will also bring other value to RIM in terms of supporting certain unannounced product plans for intelligent peripherals, adding valuable intellectual property to RIM’s portfolio and providing long-term synergies for the companies based on the significant and complementary OS expertise that exists within the RIM and QNX teams today,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM.
Beyond better integration between RIM’s BlackBerry and vehicles, RIM is probably interested in bringing some of the features in QNX’s Neutrino operating system into its own BlackBerry OS. QNX Neutrino RTOS is an open-source microkernel operating system that includes support for touchscreen displays and support for ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, SH-4, and x86 chipsets.
The acquisition is expected to close within 35-45 days. Terms were not disclosed.