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BlackBerry Founders May Try To Take Over the Company
New submitter Adamsobert sends this excerpt from the NY Times:
"In a regulatory filing on Thursday, Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin said that they were considering a bid for the 92 percent of the company that they do not own. ... Their potential bid joins a growing list of expressions of interest in the company, which recently reported a $1 billion quarterly loss caused by the market's rejection of new smartphones that were supposed to revive BlackBerry's prominence. Fairfax Financial Holdings of Toronto has made a conditional, nonbinding offer to buy the 90 percent of BlackBerry shares it does not own for $9 each. That would value the company at about $4.7 billion."
They did such a great job running it before...
He already ran the company into this situation. The problems at Blackberry are so bad that even a child could spot them, I know a few of the staff being laid off and they with out even trying can pick out the issues. If you never meet deadlines, never innovate, copy the market and become stale, you fail.
What's the actual value (not market value, actual value) of BlackBerry? What are they going to get for that ~$5bn? It seems to me BlackBerry aren't competitive in the handset market any more and don't stand any chance of becoming so any time soon. They are pushing BBM for other platforms now, are they trying to pivot and become a messaging company? Again, I don't see how they are competitive or how they will make money.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
Make it the safest telephone ever.
With heavy encryption, plugins for blocking all data harvesters and no NSA eaves dropping.
Since it is a non-US based company, it should be possible.
I would already be happy with a low-app, low-cost monochrome e-ink phone with extreme battery life, as long as it is very secure.
Just for business communication. That's what blackberry should be used for. Stay in that market niche.
Then I'll read Facebook and Twitter on my other, bloated, battery draining spyware infested color telephone.
Or combine both systems into one, but remember to keep the data channels physically separated.
I don't get it - Blackberry has basically failed. These guys obviously made a lot of money when it WAS successful in order to even have the capital to attempt this - why not just let it go and retire. When you have more money than any one person could likely ever spend doing normal day-to-day living, why risk it just for the chance to make even more money that you can't spend fast enough?
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
I was under the impression, and had read reports in the last few days, that said Fairfax's offer wasn't going to happen at $9 because they were unable to get that much cash together for the deal? I think some are suggesting they are about $1B short and that $7/share was more realistic for them. That was why other players are now starting to seriously think about offers now, including Google and MS again? Or am I simply mistaken, and am having yet another one of my "old" moments?
DaveyJJ
Lazaridis is insane... why would he believe he could run BlackBerry any better today than he did before?
I knew I should have shorted them the day the iPhone was announced...
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Apple has the high-end smart-phone market, Android the mid and low end, and - horror of honours it looks as though Blackberry's old corporate market for centrally controlled and secured phones might be going to MicroSoft.
One of the rarely spoken problems with Blackberry is that it had become stale. Somehow they mistakenly thought "oh hey, these touchscreen phones are what people want! let's make one too!" It wasn't the touchscreen. It was the apps and the user interface. Being able to do so much more with a phone is the big deal... but it also makes a phone into a toy and a huge distraction. Blackberry is a "business device."
That Blackberry is a business device which is well established for its security and other business-centric features is functional, but "old and stale." So what's a 'berry to do? Well, if they were to ask me, I'd tell them to build a blackberry "module" device and stick it into an Android phone. The two devices work together in that the Android provides the UI to the device which then maintains all the Blackberry core business features and the Android device accesses the data through an API. That way, Android apps can be available to keep people interested in their toy while the Blackberry-ness can continue on.
I knew I should have shorted them the day the iPhone was announced...
-jcr
Their share price dropped from an all time high at around that very time, but blackberry continued to grow for three more years. What killed blackberry was not the iPhone, but poor decisions, like its ill fated tablet, and its late blackberry 10 operating system.
Apple has the high-end smart-phone market, Android the mid and low end, and - horror of honours it looks as though Blackberry's old corporate market for centrally controlled and secured phones might be going to MicroSoft.
Not even close. Apple occupy the unique position of being a mid range; low cost; high priced; highly subsidised phone that limitied its penetration to the US where its brand has a lot of power. In China its a joke. Android occupy the Low; Mid and High range as well as all sizes; tastes; unique designs. Microsoft have made a tiny bit of growth, at the very bottom end of "Nokias" traditional markets...its a topic to itself.
My Android is a piece of crap, a 600 dollar mistake I'll never make again.
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Android-Smartphones-iPhone-Apple-Google,21043.html
"The research firm's survey, which had over 300,000 worldwide smartphone owners participating, found that consumers are most satisfied with Motorola’s Atrix HD and Droid Razr M. Those devices are followed by HTC’s Rezound 4G and Samsung’s Galaxy Note 2. The iPhone 5s rating of 8.23 made Apple's flagship device settle for the fifth spot."
your views differ from others.
...and a huge amount of bloat as a company that only produces ONE product! About 5-6 years ago I used to spend many weekends (dating my future wife) in Waterloo, Ontario, where the BlackBerry/RIM's headquarters are located. I was always amazed at just how many buildings were scattered around the city just dedicated to RIM. It always seemed excessive to me!
Fast-forward to today. I was driving to work in Mississauga, Ontario (about an hour east of Waterloo) and decided to take a different route for the first time. To my surprise I saw two huge BlackBerry building that looked like they were no more than a few years old. I can only imagine this is the tip of the iceberg as to the properties, corporate jets, and huge amounts of staff they still have and are in desperate need of shedding as they are burning through cash like crazy and have almost nothing to show for it.
If Mike Lazaridis were to come back that would be the kiss of death for them - the nail in the coffin. Let's remember who was on the board (along with Ballsillie) during the times that allowed the company to a) grow massively b) fail to innovate and c) put all their eggs in one basket. Then when times got tough, both of them chickened out, sold shares and took the money and ran. Mike Lazaridis might be smart engineer who is good at technology and ceasing opportunities but is likely a lousy businessman and innovator.
BB doesn't need better hardware or better technology - they need a better leader who innovates, inspires and can see into the future much like Jobs, Page/Brin, etc. I am afraid it's far too late to save the company as they are at least one generation behind everything and have an abysmal market share. They may be good at doing email but that is very easy technology to implement/copy in other devices. Honestly the best thing that could happen to them at this point would be if somebody like Google or Micro$oft bought them for their patents and IP.
It is very sad what has happened to them and all the employees who have lost or are loosing their jobs but their downfall is almost entirely their own fault due to their arrogance, failure to innovate and lack of product diversification.
Cool story. Would be a lot cooler if you didn't work for Blackberry. It's not like you hide your identity well Aaron Wiebe.
I don't have an e-dog in this e-fight, but c'mon, why don't you address his points (and debunk them if you have the arguments to do so) instead of launching an ad-hominem?
I live in Waterloo, and have many friends who work/worked there.
Before people think that an acquisition by the founder would save the company, please read the following in depth article: How Blackberry blew it: the inside story.
While Apple and Google were building an ecosystem of developers writing thousands of apps, and a central repository for those apps, Lazarides was still focusing on battery life and a physical keyboard, and failed to see why Apple and Google were becoming so popular.
Blackberry is resigned to the fate of being #4 platform for mobile, after Google, Apple, and yes, Microsoft, with low single digit market share after being #1 before smart phones with touch screens and app store/markets.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
RIM is totem pole tourism, some IP rights and a Blackberry salvage operation at best.
Maybe Michael Dell can put in his two-cents on how to turn the company around.
...should come up with a stripped down extra secure Android smartphone, with two profiles - a fully encrypted super secure profile for business and another for rest of the nonsense.
There is a market for the above, and they have to tom-tom "this phone will not spy on you". (Its a meaningless slogan, but might work.)
They did have the two profile version with the new phone, but the OS needs to be Android. They already have the hardware.
Tat Tvam Asi
Right now everyone thinks BB is dying. The Founders jumping in and saying they want to buy the whole thing says they believe it still has life. Maybe they're just trying to attract interest and pull in more bidders.
I stole this Sig