Further bolstering its new broadband business unit, General Dynamics [GD] on Monday said it has acquired Open Kernel Labs Inc., a designer and provider of software that enables secure computing on commercial handheld devices, a critical need for government and commercial end users that want to bring their own smart phones to work.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. OK Labs, which is based in Chicago and has a presence in Australia, has 50 employees.
OK Labs’ technology provides the security in devices that allows users to operate on their secure networks for work and their private or personal networks, essentially creating two phones in one and thereby supporting the bring-your-own-device trend.
“Government and corporate CIOs want the advantages of today’s commercial mobile devices without having to sacrifice the integrity and security of their networks,” Chris Marzilli, president of GD C4 Systems, said in a statement.
OK Labs will become part of GD’s new Broadband business unit that was stood up this summer following two previous acquisitions that expanded the company’s capabilities and customers in next-generation wireless networking equipment (Defense Daily, July 17). A key driver behind GD’s deeper push into the broadband market is the launching earlier this year of the FirstNet nationwide next-generation, interoperable public safety broadband network.
The legislation that establishes FirstNet says the government wants to go from a land mobile radio-based system for first responders to a 4G Long Term Evolution-based network, “so it takes the current systems and basically puts them on the ash heap of history if you will,” James Norton, vice president of GD C4’s Washington Operations, told Defense Daily yesterday. OK Labs’ technology allows the users of next-generation of handheld smart phones to use these devices for professional and personal use, he said.
“So the FirstNet process has started and in the next 18 months they’ll be ready to accept these devices and use them in real time operations,” Norton said.
OK Labs’ technology is installed on more than 1.6 billion government and commercial devices worldwide.
In addition to its secure computing software, OK Labs provides virtualization technology for automotive in-vehicle infotainment systems.
Growthpoint Technology Partners was OK Labs’ financial adviser on the deal.