Submitted by: kirkland on Monday November 13th, 2006 at 08:23 PM EST

Motorola plans to buy Santa Clara wireless software startup Good Technology for an undisclosed amount, the companies said in a joint statement Friday.

Good currently provides e-mail software for the Schaumburg, Ill., mobile telecommunications company's Q smartphone.

The deal will give Motorola direct access to technology that could help it compete with Research In Motion's BlackBerry among corporate users of mobile email. Arch-rival Nokia bought Intellisync, another mobile e-mail provider, in February.

Good claimed to have 12,000 corporations using its software, but at least one analyst said the deal was a desperate move.

"The reason they had to sell was they were running out of money," said Peter Misek, senior technology analyst at Vancouver-based investment firm Canaccord Capital.

Canaccord research said that as recently as last summer, Good had 250,000 subscribers (compared to almost 7 million for RIM's BlackBerry) and was burning tens of millions of dollars per quarter.

» Full story @ Mercury News