Rumor: Microsoft interested in acquiring BlackBerry
Microsoft is rumored to be talking with investment firms about the prospect of buying out Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry, likely motivated by a desire to deepen its foray into the mobile enterprise and gain access to BlackBerry's patent trove.
Chinese technology firms Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi have also expressed an interest, sources told PC-Tablet. In those cases however, the companies are allegedly motivated by increasing their brand exposure in U.S. and European business.
No party has taken definite steps towards an acquisition, and this is not the first time Microsoft has been rumored to buy BlackBerry.
The latter has seen its fortunes plummet during the past decade, as it went from being the world's leading smartphone maker to a marginal player. The company's remaining strongholds have been the government and corporate worlds, where its platform still has some appeal. U.S. President Barack Obama still uses an ultra-secure BlackBerry as his personal phone.
The company sold some 1.6 million phones during its fiscal fourth quarter, a mere fraction of the phones sold by rivals like Apple and Samsung -- Apple, for instance, sold 74.5 million iPhones in the same period. Software and services now represent the majority of the company's income, and it has seen some modest gains by pursuing that route.
Chinese technology firms Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi have also expressed an interest, sources told PC-Tablet. In those cases however, the companies are allegedly motivated by increasing their brand exposure in U.S. and European business.
No party has taken definite steps towards an acquisition, and this is not the first time Microsoft has been rumored to buy BlackBerry.
The latter has seen its fortunes plummet during the past decade, as it went from being the world's leading smartphone maker to a marginal player. The company's remaining strongholds have been the government and corporate worlds, where its platform still has some appeal. U.S. President Barack Obama still uses an ultra-secure BlackBerry as his personal phone.
The company sold some 1.6 million phones during its fiscal fourth quarter, a mere fraction of the phones sold by rivals like Apple and Samsung -- Apple, for instance, sold 74.5 million iPhones in the same period. Software and services now represent the majority of the company's income, and it has seen some modest gains by pursuing that route.
Comments
same keyboard obsession ....
same keyboard obsession ....
Nothing wrong with a Blackberry keyboard. The one (probably the only) thing I liked about my Blackberry back before the iPhone, was the keyboard. Could type far faster on the Blackberry keyboard than I can on the iPhone. If you need to send a lot of emails that have more than a few sentences, the Blackberry is actually far more efficient.
And from the above photo, it looks like the Blackberry now works much like a smartphone. I hadn't realized they had done that. The old UI was so incredibly awful as to be useless. I think that if Blackberry had done better marketing, they could have survived, but if I were buying Blackberry today with the intent of releasing Blackberry devices, I think I'd kill the brand entirely and rename the thing.
"One dinosaur acquiring another": perfect. If M$ thinks such an acquisition would help them compete with Apple and/or Android phones, they're more delusional than anyone previously thought.
Why not? One dinosaur acquiring another. Not sure what BB has to offer at this point, especially with Apple's explosion in enterprise.
I wouldn't be so quick to label Microsoft a dinosaur. They brought Office to iOS (then Android). They have a great subscription service with Office 365. Windows 10 looks pretty good so far, and it appears it will be free for most people. Their new browser also looks good.
I think Microsoft with Nadella running things still has a lot of potential.
BB has underlying security technology that would be more valuable than their handset business. And they also have QNX, which is not only used in numerous mission-critical applications (medical devices, nuclear power plants and the like), but also happens to be the #1 platform for automotive infotainment.
Its funny to see the differences between the Apple's acquisitions and the one from its competitors. While Apple is buying large companies that are on profit making position and have good market shares (e.g. Beats), Microsoft is intending to purchase a company thats is struggling to maintain itself in the industry and has no clear concept on what to do and how. Two oposite strategies, each one with its own logic...facsinating to observe...
Microsoft spending billions to fast track its own irrelevance.
Nokia is not enough? MS wants 2 losing phone Operating Systems.
BlackBerry is useless to MS. MS should quit the mobile phone business altogether.
It makes sense: If BlackBerry goes under, then Windows Phones will be the least popular phones in the world.
Actually, John Chen has a very clear strategy for BlackBerry- Enterprise and IoT. Hardware is just bridging the gap until they transform into a full on software company. The BES 12 EMM/MDM offering is best in class for security and manages ALL devices. BlackBerry has over 44,000 patents (most of them security related) and has the lions share of the Connected Car market with its QNX division. Microsoft lost out its Ford business to...QNX. BlackBerry's recent acquisitions of Moivirtu allows the to offer a "dual sim"- two numbers on the same phone. Its Secusmart acquisition allows them to offer secure Voice calls and the recent acquisition of WatchDoc gives them document level control on devices and in the cloud. It would be a smart move by any big player to grab BB while at this stage but it seems of all the players that MSFT would be the best match. John Chen has a proven track record at Sybase of being a turn around specialist and his moves in the short time he has been at the wheel at BlackBerry have been impressive.
Given that as well as the bad grammar, I'm pretty sure this is made up to get a reaction. This article is likely fake.
Ford gave MSFT the boot and went with QNX. Big reason for MSFT to acquire BB for that reason alone- QNX is in 50 million cars and counting...MSFT is shut out of a market set to explode in Connected Cars
MSFT conned into getting Nokias patens. Now its RIMs turn.
BlackBerry is actually a great fit for Microsoft.
BES 12 EMM/MDM is best in class enterprise device management and cross platform.
BB own QNX - which is the embedded RTOS in 50 million Connected Cars (the leader)- Microsoft lost its Ford business to BlackBerry.
BlackBerry has 44,000 patents in the mobile space.
It operates a global NOC network.
Some people just think its a crappy phone company....
I'm thinking
1. Patents
2. Security
3. CarPlay advancement(QNX)
4. I guess some software
Apple could probably handle 2-4 by themselves.