Apple Buys Fleetsmith to Help Companies Manage Devices

(Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. acquired Fleetsmith, which offers popular software for companies to manage their Apple devices, in a move to bolster the iPhone maker’s tools for enterprise clients.

“Our shared values of putting the customer at the center of everything we do without sacrificing privacy and security means we can truly meet our mission,” Fleetsmith said Wednesday in announcing the deal on its website.

The purchase by the Cupertino, California-based technology giant continues a fast pace of acquisitions in 2020. Apple this year has already acquired Voysis to improve Siri, NextVR for virtual-reality broadcasting technology, Xnor.ai for artificial intelligence tools and Dark Sky to improve its Weather app.

San Francisco-based Fleetsmith offers software known as MDM, or mobile device management. That lets companies setup, manage and install software updates across a company’s whole swatch of Apple devices at once.

Apple offers MDM capability in its devices but doesn’t provide a simple software solution like Fleetsmith and rivals including Jamf Software LLC. Apple has touted its use among corporate customers for years and allows companies to build apps that can only be deployed to their employees.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.