“Former Apple Inc Chief Executive John Sculley is exploring a joint bid for smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd with Canadian partners, the Globe and Mail reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed sources,” Jeffrey Hodgson reports for Bloomberg.
“The report said Sculley declined to comment on the matter, but told the Canadian newspaper that he has been a long-time BlackBerry fan and user,” Hodgson reports. “BlackBerry, based in Waterloo, Ontario, once dominated the smartphone market but put itself up for sale after being overtake by Apple’s iPhone… ‘The only thing I would say is, I think there’s a lot of future value in Blackberry,’ Sculley told the newspaper. ‘But without experienced people who have run this type of business, and without a strategic plan, it would be really challenging.'”
Hodgson reports, “BlackBerry is also in talks with Cisco Systems Inc, Google and SAP about selling them all or parts of itself, several sources close to the matter had told Reuters. BlackBerry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin are also considering a bid, a securities filing showed earlier this month.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The sugar water sales bozo never was very smart.
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Former Apple CEO Sculley: Apple should buy big companies – October 14, 2013
If John Sculley says Apple must do this then Apple probably shouldn’t – January 17, 2013
John Sculley: Apple’s big mistake was hiring me as CEO – October 14, 2010
Once a salesman always a salesman. Don’t expect brilliance here…
Under similar rationale keep Steve Ballmer in charge of Microsoft. Both Ballmer and Sculley would then finish the job of finishing these companies. Things worked out so great for Apple when Sculley was in charge, oh yeah, he’s got some kinda “credentials” to run a tech company all right. Too much carbonation in Sculley’s drinks these days.
Gratuitous insults are classless.
But are these insults gratuitous (unjustified, uncalled for, unwarranted, unprovoked, undue; indefensible, unjustifiable; needless, unnecessary, inessential, unmerited, groundless, senseless, wanton, indiscriminate; excessive, immoderate, inordinate, inappropriate)?
Many languages do not even HAVE a thesaurus.
English++
@KingMel: In a word, yes, they are gratuitous. MDN seems to have a vendetta going on Sculley and their takes play VERY fast and loose with the historical facts. The truth is that Apple was very profitable during Sculley’s tenure, and that a number of important products were introduced, including the Laserwriter, the Macintosh II series, the PowerBook series and the Newton. Of the last, let me observe that it was an extraordinarily ambitious effort (some might say visionary) to put a computer in the user’s pocket, the likes of which would not be seen again until Steve Jobs held up an iPhone roughly 14 years later. The decent into crap typified by the Performa series took place after Sculley’s departure. But you would never know this from MDN’s constant attempts to smear the man.
I recall it was profitable for him with that ridiculous golden parachute he got. Something like over 9 mil, bought his house and jet, while my stocks took a dump.
This has to be akin to the morning “Funnies” section of the paper.
Just highlights why he’s gone from Apple.
He prefers to sell sugar water… 😎
I wonder if John Sculley and Steve Ballmer could combine their billions together and co-run The New Blackberry. That would be something to witness.
You are a glutton for punishment. 😛
Microberry!
John Sculley:
“Hmmm, maybe I should step in and save Blackberry.
.
.
.
NAH!”
Let friggin’ Icahn buy BB.
NewtonBeery!
See: iOS autocorrect is firmly founded in Newton handwringing recognition! 😉
From a pure entertainment perspective – this is a BRILLIANT idea! I will be entertained for at least a few months watching Sculley run BB into it’s grave!
From a sympathy perspective – don’t do that to, what I am sure are, some great people who are employed by BB. Do them the favor and just shoot it in the head now, so they can move on with their lives!
First firing Steve Jobs, now this. Worst CV ever? Reminds me of Michael Jordan’s high school coach…
This guy was the biggest mistake Steve jobs ever made, along with the Rubin fellow ?
Yes and No the Newton was indeed a great technology sadly well ahead of its time and thus was a failure like it or not in the market place. Secondly Sculley became so tied up with Newton that he completely took his eye off the ball with the Mac which was the Bread & Butter business. Yes the worst period followed his leaving but he left because of the damage he had already done that had not yet been fully seen in the market place but his decisions and neglect led to that decline becoming inevitable without a visionary turning it round which thankfully happened. Fact is he was the one who did not see the writing on the wall just as Ballmer, Lazaridis and Fregin didn’t amongst others. To think he could turn BB around is laughable. The fact he is a long time user suggests what visionary attributes he had with the Newton have long jumped ship.
“Former Apple Inc Chief Executive John Sculley is exploring a joint bid for smartphone maker BlackBerry…”
Hey Blackberry, I’ll uh, give you five bucks for that, uh, Doobie…
John, I don’t think that’s a good idea.
Marketing-As-Management and all that. Remember?