RIM buys phone-software maker

NEW YORK — The Canadian maker of BlackBerry e-mail devices, fresh from settling a lawsuit that threatened its very business, is buying a company that will allow it to marry BlackBerrys with corporate phone systems.

“It makes your BlackBerry perform just like your desktop phone,” said Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of the company behind the BlackBerry, Research In Motion Ltd. of Waterloo, Ont.

RIM announced Friday that it has bought Ascendent Systems, a San Jose, California, company that makes software for connecting cell-phones to a corporate phone switch, or PBX.