One Year After Buying NewBay, RIM Sells The Mobile Cloud Software Developer To Synchronoss Technologies For $55.5M In Cash

RIM could have a little more cash on hand next quarter. The flailing BlackBerry developer has sold its cloud services unit NewBay to Synchronoss Technologies, the provider of automation software, mobility management, and cloud technology solutions. The acquisition price was $55.5 million in cash, and the transaction closed in the fourth quarter of 2012.

It was a short-lived acquisition for RIM, which bought NewBay in October 2011 for $100 million and took a bit of a bath. In August, Reuters reported that RIM was looking to sell NewBay.

NewBay’s cloud software enables mobile operators and service providers to allow its users to store, share and access content (i.e. video, photos, music) across connected devices such as smartphones, tablets, PCs and TVs. The company’s technology platform empowers customers to deliver user content services such as social networking, digital vault, photo and video albums, network address book, notification and converged messaging services.

The company’s software was used by Orange, Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile, Telefonica, AT&T and Verizon. According to a release, NewBay’s cloud services are delivered to millions of users and store billions of media files for operator services around the world.

RIM just reported earnings last week, barely scraping by analyst expectations.