“Smartphone maker BlackBerry Inc. is ‘open’ to going private, according to Reuters,” Dan Primack writes for Fortune. “How delightful. In related news, my toddler is ‘open’ to getting a pony for her next birthday.”
“There are arguments that companies like Apple or Microsoft may want select piece[s] of BlackBerry — such as its secured network assets or patents — but being amenable to a take-private buyout is much different than enabling a strip sale,” Primack writes. “So back to the buyout talk. Or lack thereof, since companies only leak such ‘openness’ if no one is actively beating down their door.”
Primack writes, “Today’s BlackBerry is to companies like Apple and Samsung what Palm used to be to BlackBerry. That is to say it has become passé among consumers, seemingly regardless of product quality. Private equity firms are good at changing up management, massaging finances and growing sales of already-popular products. But not really at massive brand resuscitations.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: DCW with malaise on top.
Related articles:
Beleaguered BlackBerry lays off 250 employees in wake of poor earnings – July 25, 2013
Best Buy slashes price on beleaguered BlackBerry’s Z10 phone flop – July 12, 2013
Beleaguered BlackBerry fades in fight to be number 3 in mobile phones – July 3, 2013
Beleaguered BlackBerry shares plummet most since 2000 on Z10 phone flop – June 29, 2013
More blood on Apple iPad’s touchscreen: BlackBerry’s Playbook is dead – June 28, 2013
Beleaguered BlackBerry plummets after posting loss, lower-than-projected sales – June 28, 2013
RUMOR: RIM BlackBerry PlayBook sales miss targets by over 90% at major retailer – May 20, 2011
RIM BlackBerry PlayBook suffers new round of battery woes – May 19, 2011
RIM recalls PlayBook tablets – May 16, 2011
Needham downgrades RIM, chops forecast; blames ‘clueless’ half-CEOs – May 5, 2011
Research In Motion warns of weak BlackBerry sales; shares plunge – April 29, 2011
Anatomy of failure: Mobile flops from RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia can’t compete with Apple’s iPhone, iPad – April 23, 2011
InfoWorld reviews RIM BlackBerry PlayBook: A useless, unfathomable train wreck 2011 – April 21, 2011
RIM launches PlayBook to no lines – April 19, 2011
RIM’s half-CEOs whine: It’s not ‘fair’ that our ‘superior’ tablet is getting bad reviews – April 15, 2011
Pogue reviews RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook: Half-baked, buggy, and missing important features – April 14, 2011
RIM’s half-CEO Lazaridis walks out of BBC interview – April 13, 2011
Research in Motion’s half-CEO admits to being clueless – April 11, 2011
Gassée: ‘The inmates have taken over the asylum’ at BlackBerry-maker RIM – March 28, 2011
RIM shares drop as marketing chief leaves company on eve of supposed PlayBook launch – March 4, 2011
Analyst: RIM’s expensive, flawed PlayBook tablet will be poorly received – February 1, 2011
RIM’s half-CEO: We think customers getting tired of being told what to think by Apple – October 18, 2010
Steve Jobs: I don’t see RIM catching us; Android is a fragmented mess; 7-inch tablets will be DOA – October 18, 2010
Buying BlackBerry at the moment would be like the British man eating roadkill. The British are funny that way – eating roadkill as culinary repast. I suppose it beats eating fish & chips off a rumpled newspaper with a dash of vinegar on top.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048527/Jonathan-McGowan-roadkill-Owl-curry-adder-stir-fried-craneflies.html
BLN, it’s clear you have bugger-all knowledge of Britain, and what people actually eat. Roadkill as food goes back much further in the US, purely because North America has a much wider variety of animals that can actually be eaten. Here’s a quote from Wiki:
“During the early 20th century, roadkill or “flat meats” (or “Highway Pizza”) became a common sight in all industrialized First World nations, as they adopted the internal combustion engine and the automobile. Roadkill can be eaten, and there are several recipe books dedicated to roadkill. One of the earliest observers of roadkill was the naturalist Joseph Grinnell, who noted in 1920: “This [roadkill] is a relatively new source of fatality; and if one were to estimate the entire mileage of such roads in the state [California], the mortality must mount into the hundreds and perhaps thousands every 24 hours.””
And until you’ve actually eaten quality battered cod, with properly cooked chips, you are in no position to compare fresh fish with an animal that’s been smashed by a car travelling at 50-60mph, then left in the road.
The newspaper was the outer wrapping, because it was abundant and free, the actual fish and chips were, and still are, put into grease-proof packets, then wrapped in clean, virgin paper.
Nobody uses newspaper any more, and haven’t done for many years. We’re not allowed to. Health and safety, don’t you know…
I’ll bet you think that all Brits walk around talking like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, too!
We all think he sounded like a complete dick.
Imagine if someone like Microsoft had scooped up the way-ahead-of-its-time Sidekick.
Just think how much ahead of the curve Microsoft could be today.
No doubt the process would work even better if they were to scoop up a dead-and-dying tech like Blackberry!
Huh? Microsoft acquired Danger, whose best product was Sidekick, in 2008, killed it and put the Danger team to work on something called Kin, which was so awful Microsoft put it out of its misery.
Microsoft had multiple chances to get “ahead of the curve”, and lollygagged or bungled their way to steaming, dripping wreckage.
(On second thought, fine piece of sarcasm, kirkgray)
Why can’t these clowns come up with some decent phones?
The industry needs a good second-runner-up to the iPhone and it should be Blackberry. They never really stole any IP from Apple. There only real crime was love of plastic key pads and some silly quotes.
They should be spanking Android by now, but sadly no.
Blackberry mind share is now brain dead. All that’s left is to bury the corpse.
BB stands for Both Ballmer’s, as in their co-CEO’s.
People did not notice that Blackberry increased its market share 11% in China/India, which may make Blackberry a nice takeover target for a handset maker not named Apple, Microsoft or Samsung.
I really hope they make it. We need BlackBerry and WP to fight Goosung and Android.