Alcatel-Lucent Purchases Mformation for IoT Security Smarts

Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) has acquired mobile and Internet of Things security platform provider Mformation as the French tech giant looks to solidify its grip on the growing mobile device security market.

Mformation will be absorbed into Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Platforms organization so service providers and enterprises can gain access to a secure and scalable application-independent IoT security and control platform, according to the announcement. Alcatel-Lucent said it plans to market the platform for use in multiple industry verticals, including automotive, health care, utilities, manufacturing and the burgeoning digital home market.

The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“Our portfolio and our customer base are highly complementary to Alcatel-Lucent’s Internet of Things aspirations,” said Rakesh Kushwaha, founder and chief technology officer of Mformation, in a statement. “We look forward to leveraging our mobile and IoT security capabilities to enable customers to fully exploit the benefits of a connected world.”

Mformation is a New Jersey-based IoT security and device management solution provider that currently has more than 20 million service provider customers worldwide. Alcatel-Lucent said the addition of Mformation’s platform to its portfolio will help it become a leading force in the mobile device management and security space, as the number of connected devices is predicted to exceed 70 billion by 2020.

“As connected devices become an ever-increasing part of our social and economic fabric, we need to ensure that these devices, and the networks they navigate, are secure, reliable and efficient,” said Bhaskar Gorti, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP Platforms organization. “Mformation’s cloud-enabled IoT platform will enable our customers to rapidly deploy IoT services that can be trusted and managed efficiently.”

Alcatel-Lucent was last in the news in April, when Nokia (NOK) announced it would acquire the networking equipment maker for a whopping $16.6 billion in shares. The deal is still pending and is expected to close during the first six months of 2016.