RIM acquires Ascendent Systems
Q: Will Ascendent remain at its current location or will employees be required to relocate?
A: Ascendent will maintain its current headquarters in Silicon Valley and office in the Boston area. RIM also plans to further invest in people and resources at Ascendent's headquarters and is looking for larger premises in that area at this time.
Q: How will Ascendent's sales offices be affected?
A: The existing sales offices will be maintained. RIM also plans to further invest in people and resources at Ascendent.
Q: What will be the approach to integrating Ascendent's product line with RIM's?
A: Ascendent's product line complements BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite augments existing PBX (Private Branch Exchange) and IP-PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange) systems and supports heterogeneous telephony environments to "push" voice calls and extend corporate desk phone functionality to mobile users on their wireless handset or any wireline phone. The product family will continue to develop along those lines, with significant integration between Ascendent Voice Mobility Suite and BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry devices in future.
Q: How will operations and job functions change at Ascendent?
A: Ascendent will continue to operate as before, but with increasing coordination between the sales, marketing and technology development teams from both companies.
Q: How will this affect Ascendent's customers, distributors and suppliers?
A: Ascendent's products already complement the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution and as RIM plans to further invest in people and resources at Ascendent, we anticipate that there will be a very positive reaction from customers, distributors and suppliers.
