German government approves BlackBerry’s acquisition of Secusmart

The German government has signed off BlackBerry’s acquisition of the German company Secusmart, according to local media (Google Translate). Secusmart is the company that develops software and hardware to protect government phones, including the “Merkel Phone” used by Chancellor Angela Merkel. She moved to a more secure device after it came out that the National Security Agency had been monitoring her communications. “The German government has examined the planned purchase of Secusmart by Blackberry and given its approval for it to go ahead,” an economy ministry spokeswoman said on Friday, according to Reuters. Back in July 2014, the Canadian handset maker announced that it would acquire the Düsseldorf-based company. In order to get Berlin’s approval, BlackBerry apparently had to agree to a number of government demands. It was required to give full access of its source code to the the German information security agency, known by its German acronym, BSI.