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BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

theglobeandmail.com

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Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#2

Post by untog »

Slightly misleading title. BlackBerry has assembled a group to look at all future options- including a sale.

Seems more likely they'll partner with someone. Or maybe sell off just their hardware business. I think BB as a whole isn't going away just yet.

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#3

Post by racl101 »

untog wrote: post #2

Slightly misleading title. BlackBerry has assembled a group to look at all future options- including a sale. Seems more likely they'll partner with someone. Or maybe sell off just their hardware business. I think BB as a whole isn't going away just yet.

I think more than 50% of the headlines on HN are misleading and sensationalist. Nobody would want to most the puff pieces here if they had honest titles.

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#4

Post by twerquie »

untog wrote: post #2

Slightly misleading title. BlackBerry has assembled a group to look at all future options- including a sale. Seems more likely they'll partner with someone. Or maybe sell off just their hardware business. I think BB as a whole isn't going away just yet.

I think they have stated quite publicly and explicitly: The company is for sale.

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#5

Post by bodyfour »

untog wrote: post #2

Slightly misleading title. BlackBerry has assembled a group to look at all future options- including a sale. Seems more likely they'll partner with someone. Or maybe sell off just their hardware business. I think BB as a whole isn't going away just yet.

I think the most likely endgame is that they'll pull a Nokia: either an outright MSFT purchase or becoming a heavily-subsidized client state.

* Microsoft still has plenty of cash, but is facing an existential crisis of losing platform relevance

* Their overall mobile marketshare is so low that they can probably throw that cash around with much antitrust attention

* They've had a hard time attracting hardware makers other than Nokia. If Nokia stumbles further, the whole phone platform could unravel.

* The traditional Blackberry market was enterprises, who probably would be a lot more receptive to the "windows everywhere" story than Nokia's customers ever were. Blackberry's original killer feature was arguably MS Exchange integration.

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#8

Post by cjoh »

At 5 billion dollars of market cap, the company's worth less than what Microsoft paid for Skype. Frankly, Apple or Google should make this purchase just for their federal salesforce alone -- Blackberry knows how to do something those other companies don't do well and that's sell and entrench inside of Governments. That alone is worth billions. Give the iPhone to a Blackberry federal salesperson, and you've got billions.
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