Smarsh Inc. has purchased MobileGuard Inc., a company that monitors compliance over mobile communications, for the target's complementary technology. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

MobileGuard, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, provides text message compliance and secure message archiving services for the regulated and public sector industries. In addition to text messages, the target monitors voice, email, multimedia, social media and secure chat messages. MobileGuard has formed partnerships with tech giants such as Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S).

"The use of text messaging without the proper governance safeguards in place leaves a company at risk for brand and reputation problems, compliance consequences, and potentially devastating legal issues," states Smarsh CEO Stephen Marsh. "This is an area of tremendous vulnerability that many companies have ignored."

Smarsh develops cloud-based applications for archiving information to help companies protect themselves and manage risk. Branded with a “we archive everything” slogan, the buyer offers compliance services across a variety of digital communications. Smarsh, founded in 2001, serves more than 20,000 organizations from its offices in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, London, and headquarters in Portland, Oregon. The deal for MobileGuard’s complementary technology will allow companies to retain and supervise mobile messaging with the same scrutiny as compliance divisions would with email.

M&A for tech and telecommunications-related companies have been increasing throughout 2016. Recent deals include: GTCR LLC’s purchase of mobile network provider Inteliquent Inc. (Nasdaq: IQNT) for nearly $800 million and CenturyLink Inc.’s (NYSE: CTL) agreement to buy Level 3 Communications Inc. (NYSE: LVLT) for $34 billion in a cash and stock deal.

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