Research In Motion (RIM), the company that designs and manufactures BlackBerry smart phones, has purchased Seattle-based contact management firm Gist, both companies announced today.

"We’re excited that the Gist team is joining RIM and bringing their expertise in providing customers with a contextualized, streamlined, and consolidated view of information about their contacts to the BlackBerry platform," said Alan Brenner, senior vice president of the BlackBerry platform, in a blog post.

Research In Motion (RIM), the company that designs and manufactures BlackBerry smart phones, has purchased Seattle-based contact management firm Gist, both companies announced today.

"We’re excited that the Gist team is joining RIM and bringing their expertise in providing customers with a contextualized, streamlined, and consolidated view of information about their contacts to the BlackBerry platform," said Alan Brenner, senior vice president of the BlackBerry platform, in a blog post.

Gist is a Web-based software tool that gathers a person’s social media and e-mail contacts in one place and aggregates their online content, including blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates, e-mails, links and attachments.

Gist offers iPhone and Android mobile application versions of its tool, a Gist Gadget for Google Apps, and also works with Salesforce.com.

It "will be interesting to see if RIM will shut the service down in favor of using it exclusively for BlackBerry users. I can imagine that a number of Gist users will be pretty disappointed if this is the case," said TechCrunch writer Leena Rao in a blog post.

The companies did not disclose the deal’s financial terms.

Gahlord Dewald, an Inman News columnist and Internet strategist, in a review of Gist last year, said, "The viewing and sharing of social media content is social-network agnostic. Instead of being focused on the social network you’re logged into, you’re focused on your contact. This is good."

Dewald said today of the announcement, "Gist is a best-in-class personal social (customer relationship management) tool. I certainly get a little nervous about a specific hardware platform owning a CRM tool."

He added that he knows Greg Meyer, the "customer experience manager" at Gist, "to be a capable thinker and maker. I’ll watch what happens to him as the transition occurs."

Show Comments Hide Comments
Sign up for Inman’s Morning Headlines
What you need to know to start your day with all the latest industry developments
By submitting your email address, you agree to receive marketing emails from Inman.
Success!
Thank you for subscribing to Morning Headlines.
Back to top
×
Log in
If you created your account with Google or Facebook
Don't have an account?
Forgot your password?
No Problem

Simply enter the email address you used to create your account and click "Reset Password". You will receive additional instructions via email.

Forgot your username? If so please contact customer support at (510) 658-9252

Password Reset Confirmation

Password Reset Instructions have been sent to

Subscribe to The Weekender
Get the week's leading headlines delivered straight to your inbox.
Top headlines from around the real estate industry. Breaking news as it happens.
15 stories covering tech, special reports, video and opinion.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
Unique features from hacker profiles to portal watch and video interviews.
It looks like you’re already a Select Member!
To subscribe to exclusive newsletters, visit your email preferences in the account settings.
Up-to-the-minute news and interviews in your inbox, ticket discounts for Inman events and more
1-Step CheckoutPay with a credit card
By continuing, you agree to Inman’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

You will be charged . Your subscription will automatically renew for on . For more details on our payment terms and how to cancel, click here.

Interested in a group subscription?
Finish setting up your subscription
×