BlackBerry officially puts itself up for sale, but potential buyers are limited
Executives at BlackBerry, once a dominant player in the smartphone market, have decided to put the Canadian company up for sale, though few companies are expected to show interest.
The best chance of a sale for BlackBerry may come in splitting up the company, allowing the sale of the company's valuable patent portfolio, estimated to be worth about $2 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. But as for outright buyers of BlackBerry as a whole, potential partners may be limited.
Market watchers say it's unlikely that a private equity firm would show interest in BlackBerry. Among rivals, Microsoft is a potential buyer, but that deal would be complicated by the fact that the Windows maker already has a strong alignment with Finnish smartphone company Nokia.
Prospective international buyers identified by the Journal include Samsung, HTC and Lenovo, all of which could benefit from BlackBerry's strong history in enterprise markets. But the Canadian government has also warned that it would scrutinize any potential foreign buyers of BlackBerry.
BlackBerry convened a special committee on Monday to explore "strategic alternatives" for the company going forward. The company later announced it had hired J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to explore the possibility of an outright sale, joint ventures, or strategic partnerships.
But a sale is viewed as the only realistic option for BlackBerry, as the company has continued to bleed out customers in the face of market dominance by Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Android-powered smartphones. Previously, BlackBerry executives reportedly mulled taking the company private, but that doesn't seem to be a likely resolution anymore.
In its last quarterly earnings report in June, BlackBerry posted a loss of $84 million on shipments of just 6.8 million smartphones, most of which were legacy devices. The company had been pinning its hopes on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, but just 2.7 million devices running that platform were shipped in the quarter.
The best chance of a sale for BlackBerry may come in splitting up the company, allowing the sale of the company's valuable patent portfolio, estimated to be worth about $2 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. But as for outright buyers of BlackBerry as a whole, potential partners may be limited.
Market watchers say it's unlikely that a private equity firm would show interest in BlackBerry. Among rivals, Microsoft is a potential buyer, but that deal would be complicated by the fact that the Windows maker already has a strong alignment with Finnish smartphone company Nokia.
Prospective international buyers identified by the Journal include Samsung, HTC and Lenovo, all of which could benefit from BlackBerry's strong history in enterprise markets. But the Canadian government has also warned that it would scrutinize any potential foreign buyers of BlackBerry.
BlackBerry convened a special committee on Monday to explore "strategic alternatives" for the company going forward. The company later announced it had hired J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. to explore the possibility of an outright sale, joint ventures, or strategic partnerships.
But a sale is viewed as the only realistic option for BlackBerry, as the company has continued to bleed out customers in the face of market dominance by Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Android-powered smartphones. Previously, BlackBerry executives reportedly mulled taking the company private, but that doesn't seem to be a likely resolution anymore.
In its last quarterly earnings report in June, BlackBerry posted a loss of $84 million on shipments of just 6.8 million smartphones, most of which were legacy devices. The company had been pinning its hopes on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, but just 2.7 million devices running that platform were shipped in the quarter.
Comments
Idiot Co-CEOs are responsible for its death.
Rest in Peace or Pieces.
Blackberry cobbler any one? Oh wait the berries have gone rotten. Crap maybe we need some Ice cream sandwiches?
Can't Apple buy them for patents and good tech that blackberry still has so iOS benefits from it while running Blackberry has a separate company?
Well, call it orange! "oh, blackberry and apple are the same company!" "no they aren't, Apples and oranges!"
That way they could produce phones that sell for less than 300 dollars no-contract and run iOS, no? They could have the 10 sad persons that still demand a physical qwerty, while giving a option for students outside of the US that can't afford expensive devices and contracts.
Looks like the new iphone 5c will cost the same as the 4s, if the rumours are right, and that means 500 € no contract for a "cheaper" device in Europe. Good luck with that, Apple.
There are some great sub-300€ jelly bean android devices out there, i do not understand Apple's position. I'm not even talking about screen size, just a different offering. I love vanilla android, I just see iOS as a better OS and current iPhones as better devices and already have a Mac, otherwise I would've bought another android device already.
I will wait and see a bit more.
I personally don't see any chance that Apple could buy Blackberry. IMHO the necessary regulatory bodies wouldn't permit it.
Yes, Apple could buy them for the patent portfolio and installed base.
Not likely. I don't see Apple making a cheap brand that's incompatible.
Rather, I could see them buying BB for the IP and then doing one of two things (or both):
1. Offering a migration tool to migrate all your BB contacts, emails, etc to your iPhone to ease the transition.
2. Offering a special BB version of the iPhone which is different in some way (but not simply dropping features to make it cheap). I'm not sure what it would look like - maybe a physical keyboard if they could figure out how to do that without making it look crappy.
Funny how "Android is winning" and "Apple is a tiny player" is the mantra when it comes to putting Apple down, but as soon as the topic of Apple buying BB comes up, Apple's too big.
Apple has only something like 15% of the mobile phone market. I doubt if any regulatory bodies would interfere.
Are you listening, Ballmer... this is your Hail Mary... buy Blackberry!
Bwahahahahaha...
"They" interfered with Google buying Motorola and added conditions that had to be met if it was to be approved . "They" interfered with Apple and Microsoft bidding on the Nortel patents, adding conditions that both had to agree to. Yet you honestly think there would be no interference with Apple buying Blackberry in whole or part? You may want to think about it again.
That can't be a serious claim. Apple is a tiny player?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gatorguy
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta
... "Apple is a tiny player" is the mantra when it comes to putting Apple down, but as soon as the topic of Apple buying BB comes up, Apple's too big.
Where do you come up with this stuff? That can't be a serious claim. Apple is a tiny player?
yes... I mean, what can a guy do with 160 billion on the bank? That's what, 2 itunes movies?
BTW, iTunes is having a Buy One, Get Two Free Sale on movies. US only tho.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SpamSandwich
Happened even faster than I predicted. Wow. Textbook lesson in how to ignore seismic market shifts.
Yep, in a word, "complacency!"
Indeed.
I see blackberry as a great opportunity for the only race that Apple is clearly losing. The race of the billion that do not wan't a contract and phones that cost more than 300 dollar. A poor student today can be a rich man tomorrow. you know the drill.
Look:
https://loja.vodafone.pt/homephone/telemovel.htm?id=72492-1&modelo=Sony-Xperia-L-Preto
Apple has no fucking excuse to not offer a similar alternative. iOS makes this look like shit if you are already on the ecosystem, otherwise it is worth almost nothing because despite being superior to android, jelly bean is great too.
Then, if I use all my points and advantages as a client, this is the best deal I can get from apple:
https://loja.vodafone.pt/homephone/telemovel.htm?id=70455-1&modelo=Apple-iPhone-4-8GB-Preto , with 1200 points, 250€.
Same price, I never had an iOS device.
Wich one would you chose? The xperia will be updated a lot, at least by cyanogenmod. The iPhone 4 will see iOS7, but it's performance while runing iOS7 makes me think twice about it. Cameras should be similar or the one on the L is just better, then it has a bigger screen and nive form factor. software keys only. Cyanogenmod was made for that device.
This is why I see Blackberry as a nice oportunity for Apple. Apple isn't losing money NOW by shitting on students and people that can't afford the iOS ecosystem as of today, they are losing money on potential hundreds of million buyers as of tomorrow. This is serious.
I think anyone who would buy Blackberry would just be getting a major headache!
It's now just up to vulture attorneys to make money off Blackberry. JP Morgan has plenty of those!
Good timing. AI just posted an article on it too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gatorguy
Where do you come up with this stuff? That can't be a serious claim. Apple is a tiny player?
Not sure if "tiny player" is the correct term, but yet, there's thousands of trolls daily that state how Apple has a "tiny" share of the phone/PC market, which is decreasing every day, and therefore they will soon become irrelevant. One achieves this conclusion by mindlessly comparing sales of the iPhone (a premium device of which 1 new model gets released per year), with sales of every single phone by every single other company running some variation of Android- and since this # is larger, Apple is doomed.
Yeah, mind-numbingly moronic, but this "iPhone vs Android" comparison gets seriously made on a daily basis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gatorguy
BTW, iTunes is having a Buy One, Get Two Free Sale on movies. US only tho.
Yes, I know that.I still can't undertand the US only part.
Seriously Apple, get your f*cking act together. If Bezos was runing Apple, he would've already used some billions to buy some studios and sell movies and TV shows worldwide at the same price,same day, no restrictions. That way other studios would be forced to do the same.