IT security firm Symantec is to buy mobile applications management company Nukona, expanding its cross-platform mobile app protection capabilities “to help IT organisations protect and isolate corporate data and applications across both corporate owned and privately owned devices.”

The company said the deal complements its earlier acquisition of Odyssey Software, a mobile device management player. Together, “Odyssey provides the MDM foundation to enrol and manage all necessary device settings across a broad range of platforms, while Nukona provides an innovative approach to help enterprises seamlessly distribute, secure and control applications and data without requiring them to manage the devices.”

Symantec said that Nukona’s ability to natively protect and control iOS, Android and HTML5 apps will enable it to “address the core problem of corporate and personal data separation without limiting the end-user experience or application adoption.”

The company said that unlike traditional, proprietary sandbox solutions, its approach will “wrap” native and web-based apps with a management layer, which enables security policies to be applied without requiring changes to apps. This also allows personal apps to remain untouched.

The deal is expected to close next month. Financial terms were not disclosed.