Well, they clung onto life a lot longer than we expected them to. But it looks like BlackBerry is finally realizing that staying as a going concern might mean selling itself, and we don’t mean working harder during sales presentations.
BlackBerry tries to put the best face on it, but, well, this is what they say in the opening paragraph of their press release:
BlackBerry Limited today announced that the Company’s Board of Directors has formed a Special Committee to explore strategic alternatives to enhance value and increase scale in order to accelerate BlackBerry 10 deployment. These alternatives could include, among others, possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions.
In other words, the board of directors think the company is most likely to survive being sold to somebody. Adding insult to injury, they also admitted that there was “no guarantee this would conclude in a transaction”, which is business-speak for “Nobody has actually asked to buy us, so we’re just kinda hoping somebody wants us.”
This isn’t the biggest of surprises. The Z10, which arrived amid much hoopla as BlackBerry tried to reinvent itself, had its price cut by carriers to $99 from $199 just four months after it came out, and the Q10 isn’t doing much better. This reminds BlackBerry’s investors, perhaps too much for the company’s own good, of the trajectory of the PlayBook, which, well, have you see anyone using one?
It would be a shame if BlackBerry just folded, but at the same time, one has to wonder who might be in the market for the company. We’re sure somebody will buy it, though. It’s really just a question of who.
(Image courtesy of ktpupp on Flickr)