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BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

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Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#21

Post by bodyfour »

jacquesm wrote: post #16
bodyfour wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

I highly doubt that MS will be the party to bite. BB uses a customized QnX that is about as far away from Windows Phone as you could probably go without doing something really exotic. If that were their route they'd have to drop their investment in QnX, try to adapt all BB software to run under the latest incarnation of Windows Phone rather than to just run Windows Phone on it. BB users are quite particular about the…

> If that were their route they'd have to drop their investment in QnX

Just as Nokia had to drop their investment in Symbian and Maemo

> BB users are quite particular about their handsets

However they're not particular about BB10 (the QNX one you mention) since most of them aren't even running it. If anything, the fact that they're in the middle of a delicate platform shift makes the parallels with Nokia in 2011 all the more striking.

Anyway, its all just idle speculation on my part.

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#23

Post by jfb »

CaveTech wrote: post #17
AlexanderDhoore wrote: post #7

They (or the company that buys them) should license BB10 to others. Like Microsoft does with windows mobile... It's the only path I can see for the blackberry OS to survive. Otherwise they'll be utterly crushed.

The problem is Blackberry is a hardware manufacturer, so they'd need a huge volume of sales in software to make up what they would lose in hardware. That said, BB10 doesn't really offer anything compelling above Android for manufactures, and additional hardware isn't going to massively change their market share. BB customers have never been driven by cutting edge phones. Their application marketplace is so bad that t…

The reason their customers buy them has nothing to do with the hardware and everything to do with BBM. The only way out for them is as a service provider on alternate (Android, Windows, iOS) platforms.

Going private may enable them to continue to do this; any purchaser that makes sense (Microsoft) would be buying their customer list and the BBM brand. Dell buying them would be a Palm goes to HP level farce.

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#24

Post by at-fates-hands »

cjoh wrote: post #8

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 billio…

This was true maybe ten years ago, but even the US government is now moving away from Blackberry:

http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/rim-suffers-fresh-blow-...

"Research In Motion (RIM) has suffered yet another setback as the General Services Administration (GSA), the US government’s main procurement agency, announced its decision to provide iPhones and Android devices to its employees.

Though BlackBerrys will still be available from the agency, the announcement represents a general shift away from reliance on RIM products and a move towards a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy."

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#25

Post by raganwald »

untog wrote: post #13
twerquie wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

BlackBerry Ltd.'s board of directors has formed a special committee to explore “strategic alternatives,” including the possible sale of the company. Like I said, a sale is one of the things being considered in a long list of other options. But the title doesn't convey that.

Whenever they say that, they mean "sale." It's typical BigCo doublespeak. In their minds, they're trying to convey the impression that they have choices, so that when they negotiate the sale they don't have their backs up against the wall. But everyone knows it means "sale."

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#26

Post by GrinningFool »

Not quite. They've announced they've formed a committee to explore strategic options: sale, partnerships, licensing (and by extension, taking themselves private). The thing that isn't reported here is that they announced the same thing in early 2012 -- though it is the first time they've explicitly mentioned sale, and they now have one specific bank representing them.

Also of possible interest is Prem Watsa's withdrawal from the board due to conflict of interest - this may hint at Fairfax's direct involvement in sale or other negotations around taking the company private.

In any case, I hope it works out well. With the QNX-based BB10 OS they've caught up to and in some ways surpassed the competition, particularly with recent and upcoming updates.

The problem they face is three-fold: the competition is now too firmly entrenched, making it extremely difficult to get consumer and developer mindshare.

This is compounded by (and in large part caused by) the fact that they waited so long - their legacy BB OS has rendered them largely irrelevant to most people, and that's a huge hurdle to overcome.

Finally, there is a lot of carrier antipathy in the US market. Carriers are doing virtually no supportive marketing, and updates that have rolled out internationally in July won't be out in the US until late September.

Competition is heating up in the low-margin areas outside of the US that have typically bolstered their sales.

Their future is looking pretty uncertain (and I say this as someone who develops BB apps) - a manufacturing or licensing deal could provide them with what they need to keep going.

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#27

Post by twerquie »

untog wrote: post #13
twerquie wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

BlackBerry Ltd.'s board of directors has formed a special committee to explore “strategic alternatives,” including the possible sale of the company. Like I said, a sale is one of the things being considered in a long list of other options. But the title doesn't convey that.

From the actual press release:

> These alternatives could include, among others, possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions.

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/blackberry-board-of-...

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#28

Post by bane »

Probably worth buying for the patents, sales channels and manufacturing bits. Cut most of software dev and turn them into an Android phone maker...maybe specialize on low powered, ultra long battery life phones of something.

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#29

Post by jacquesm »

bodyfour wrote: post #21
jacquesm wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I highly doubt that MS will be the party to bite. BB uses a customized QnX that is about as far away from Windows Phone as you could probably go without doing something really exotic. If that were their route they'd have to drop their investment in QnX, try to adapt all BB software to run under the latest incarnation of Windows Phone rather than to just run Windows Phone on it. BB users are quite particular about the…

> If that were their route they'd have to drop their investment in QnX Just as Nokia had to drop their investment in Symbian and Maemo > BB users are quite particular about their handsets However they're not particular about BB10 (the QNX one you mention) since most of them aren't even running it. If anything, the fact that they're in the middle of a delicate platform shift makes the parallels with Nokia in 2011 all…

That's a good point. Ok, so maybe MS would be the one to bite. If only to beat out a potential competitor to windows phone and to pick up that slice of the market.

Consider me convinced, that might just work out well for them, if they're going to switch anyway it might as well be to a company that is already well represented in the enterprise. How they're going to give those users the blackberry experience is beyond me though, but that would probably not stop an acquisition.

Re: BlackBerry puts itself up for sale

#30

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

Does anyone else suspect that Blackberry/RIM's troubles might be something along the lines of what has happened to LavaBit? Wasn't their device/architecture similar to LavaBit's at least in that comm's were sent encrypted to a server either controlled by RIM, or by a third party (individual companies, gov't agencies, etc.)

Then, some time in the not-too-distant past, various world governments started making a big conspicuous deal out of getting "lawful access" to those servers.

Then, there were a few widely reported reputation damaging service outages.

Then, they became unable to design and manufacture a new phone, despite years of experience making Blackberry phones.

Given the surveillance controversy, BB ought to be "killing it" as some say, except that new BB10 devices are more like BB branded commodity smartphones, the data is no longer encrypted en-route, and the cost for "secure email" has gone up dramatically, and is licensed separately where it used to be a built-in feature.

/tinfoil

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