RIM In Talks To Buy Gist – Social Address Book Coming To BlackBerry Smartphones?

By Mauricio

RIM is on an acquisition spree! The most notable acquisitions are Torch Mobile, Cellmania, QNX Software Systems and The Astonishing Tribe. Now it looks like they’re in talks to buy another company called Gist:

RIM, the company behind the iconic mobile-messaging platform BlackBerry, is said to be in talks to acquire Seattle-based startup Gist, according to industry sources. While the deal is said to be nearly done, there is always a fair chance that the two parties might not come to an agreement. The deal terms are not available at this time. Gist VP of Marketing Robert Pease emailed a response: “We don’t have any comment on your story.”

So what is Gist?

Gist provides the only full view of the contacts in your professional network by creating a rich business profile for each one that includes the most news, status updates, and work details.

We do this by pulling together all your contacts from your various inboxes, address books, social networks, and other sources then adding news, status updates, and blog posts to them creating a rich business profile for everyone in your professional network.

I think RIM has done a good job of improving the address book in BlackBerry 6 but if this acquisition works out, the address book will probably be awesome. I’m already a fan of Xobni because they offer similar features but Gist would definitely put the BlackBerry address book over the top. Do you think there’s a need for a social address book like what Gist would offer?

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