With the BlackBerry A10 release date set for sometime in November, it was announced today that BlackBerry’s board of directors will consider exploring strategic alternatives to the company’s general direction. Or, to put it more bluntly, BlackBerry is looking for an alliance, partnership, joint venture, or buyer to enhance the value and increase the scale of the production of BlackBerry 10, the Canadian telecom company’s flagship mobile operating system.
According to Market Watch, the BlackBerry board has formed an exploratory “Special Committee of the Board comprised of Barbara Stymiest, Thorsten Heins, Richard Lynch, and Bert Nordberg, and will be chaired by Timothy Dattels” in order to help decide the fate of the company’s future.
Dattels noted in a statement of the company’s future,
“During the past year, management and the Board have been focused on launching the BlackBerry 10 platform and BES 10, establishing a strong financial position, and evaluating the best approach to delivering long-term value for customers and shareholders. Given the importance and strength of our technology, and the evolving industry and competitive landscape, we believe that now is the right time to explore strategic alternatives.”
The only question to be answered now is who wants to pick up BlackBerry’s pieces? It’s no surprise to anyone that BlackBerry has been hemorrhaging money for years now but there is plenty of upside for the suitor who decides to pull the trigger. To put it in perspective, Tech Crunch says that “The company has seen its share price fall by nearly 38% in the last six months. Currently it’s trading at $9.76 on NASDAQ.”
But the BlackBerry 10 OS and upcoming flagship BlackBerry A10, could be worth someone cracking open the piggy bank for. The A10 is rumored to have a 5-inch AMOLED display, a dual-core processor, and 2GB of RAM. As for features, we learned from BlackBerry Live that the A10 will include highlights like real-time updates, easy slide features, and multitasking gesture integration, though there’s been no word yet on pricing.
So who do you think will put in a bid for BlackBerry? Will it be Marissa Mayer and Yahoo who bought popular blogging platform Tumblr for a cool $1.1 billion and even considered buying out movie and television streaming site Hulu? Or will it strictly be a telecommunications or electronics manufacturer? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
