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Microsoft Reportedly May Acquire BlackBerry
New submitter techtsp writes: Microsoft is just one one of many companies reportedly looking to get a bigger piece of the enterprise mobile market by buying BlackBerry. Reports claim that Chinese firms including Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi are also interested in picking up BlackBerry following the company's recent return to profitability. This report comes on the heels of BlackBerry announcing it is cutting jobs across its global business units in an attempt to consolidate its software, hardware and applications business.
This one will be easier, Microsoft won't have to plant a trojan CEO to annihilate the company's market share first.
Circumcision is child abuse.
I like "Crashberry"
Table-ized A.I.
From the author's bio: "He is having immense interest in psychology, human behavior and mind hacks."
Given that as well as the bad grammar, I'm pretty sure this is made up to get a reaction.
BlueBerry
nice going there, ay?
Don't you mean "eh". As in "Lets all go to Tim Hortons for hot dogs and beer after a good match of curling, eh." or "There is a mouse in this beer, eh."
"ay" is from somewhere ootside of Canada.
Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
I'm sure this will be as big a success for Microsoft as their acquisition of Danger, Incorporated, developer of the Danger Hiptop/T-Mobile Sidekick, which led the innovative, exciting, youth-oriented Microsoft Kin. And the rest is history.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I'm horrified, partly because I'm on the verge of buying a BB Passport. It's the best thing they've done in years, and since playing with SWMBO's (she bought one instead of a galaxy edge, after much comparison). The BB has a nice android implementation, simple hack to add the Google apps, better security and sandboxing of droid apps, and real keys with a touch surface that flows right onto the 1440x1440 touchscreen. Oh, and all that stuffy Blackberry stuff. It's a truly awesome piece of hardware. And now Redmond wants to gut 'em for their IP portfolio and security reputation?
In the mobile market, Microsoft is like King Midas in reverse: everything they touch turns to shit.* But this isn't a rant about Microsoft, it's a worry that Blackberry -- having done the amazing job of pulling out of the total nosedive they were in -- might get stomped just as they level out, and ship something even better. What a disappointment that would be.
*apologies to Tony Soprano
I think not...(*poof*)
MS wants to buy the patents. The let the rest die.
It has been the goal of Microsoft to dominate all digital communications in the western world and as far as possible elsewhere. The acquisition, absorption and decimation of all who have stood in the way is almost complete. Acquiring and then dismantling BB makes perfect sense then making certain that there is no competition in Canada other than Google for corporate mail and communications is the icing on the cake for Redmond. Their tactics of using their OS domination position to corner the information market are obvious and very disturbing. ALL HAIL the new and open MICROSOFT! Same as the old.
The statues of the fallen ( and some soon to die as well)
Blackberry
Corel (Word Perfect)
IBM AIX, Lotus software etc and any attempt they made to network businesses with software other than windows based infrastructure
Nokia
HP Unix
good ol' BSD based Hot Mail
Netscape
And a huge number of others who have tried to compete against Microsoft in the digital information technology market. The Scroogle campaign has not to date done much to Bing the Google thing but it is obvious that the campaign to undermine, defame and absorb them is still alive and screwing over the market place! Milo Minderbinder has nothing on Microsoft!
This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
Don't be touching my Blackberry Microsoft!!!!
What about: "press eh, I'll handle this"?
serenity now!
Once they acquire the patents, they'll make a tablet with a keyboard and insist it's not a laptop. :P
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Either that or Microsoft is sick and tired of competing with blackberry for the ass end of the smartphone market, and hopes to grow from 2.3% market share to 3.3% again.
Just a small note, the military is switching to the iPhone 6 from the BlackBerry. Most of the leadership at the very large DoD facility I work for turned in their BlackBerries a few months back for iPhones.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Tim Horton's doesn't sell hotdogs you insensitive clod.
The Chuch Norris defense, eh?
And I think the Canadian spelling is "aboot", not "about".
Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
the encription tech.
Trust me, either way Blackberry will lose a large amount of customers almost overnight.
I like "Crashberry"
Maybe Microsoft could make a Blackberry crash. I personally had believed that phones crashing was just a joke because my Blackberry literally never crashed or needed rebooting. Then I got an Android and found out that, yes, phones really do crash. Apparently iphones do too, from what I hear from iphone owners, however, iphones crash because it is Job's will.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
That probably, and their BYOD management software, which surprisingly wasn't all that bad.
I art more snarky, and terse than thou. I art Slashdot!
I nominated "dingleberry".
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I personally had believed that phones crashing was just a joke because my Blackberry literally never crashed or needed rebooting.
Now we know you're a plant, I've had quite a few blackberries since the mid 2000s. Every single one of them have crashed to the extent where I had to remove the batteries.
Microsoft just lost the Ford account to BlackBerry. I'm more inclined to think Microsoft sees the value in BlackBerry QNX in the IoT arena. BlackBerry is positioning itself to be the middleware glue for medical, auto, automation, and a host of other fields.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Instead of sinking billions into Blackberry, why not spend $500mil on making higher quality apps on the Marketplace store? I bet if they create enough high quality apps/games and then making them free it would pay much higher dividend than acquire another niche mobile device maker. Haven't they learned already that Nokia was a dying ship? The Tmobile Sidekick/Danger was another dying ship before their acquisition.
Canada considers BlackBerry as a national Canadian treasure of sorts. It's a huge success story and has been the backbone of just an immense number of high-tech jobs. BlackBerry is a flagship company. As such, Ottawa will never allow it to be sold to outsiders like Microsoft or anyone else.
It's just not going to happen.
This means the value of the company is a lot less than it seems since the value can't be taken out of Canada in any meaningful way.
Sig for hire.
Please see the graph showing the smartphone quarterly sales:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/916271-how-stephen-elop-destroyed-nokia
See that top line? Way above the others? Thats Nokia.
You cannot rewrite history in the Internet age, Elop was a trojan horse,.
http://www.cnet.com/news/nokias-windows-phone-bear-hug-is-choking-the-mighty-finn/
This is an outrage! Tim Hortons must sell hot dogs! Where else would we expect red blooded Canadians to eat after a curling match?
I'm always shocked at just how much Canada doesn't get Canadian culture.
Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
Microsoft sees the value in BlackBerry QNX in the IoT arena
Then they are stark raving mad. It has zero traction and negative appeal in IoT space.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashdot.org Errors found while checking this document as HTML5!
Shit + more shit = shit
I've never read so much crap from the anti-microsoft brigade for a long time.
I bet that all of them hadn't tried Windows phone 8 and so they feel that they can run it into the ground because it's MS.
The phones are great. The OS is excellent and works well on low end phones too. The Windows store is better than you think and the gui and general operation is easy to use esp with One Drive. Cortana is brilliant. Hands off answers my sms-s with voice recognition.
It all a matter of choice and preference. You like android with all that confusing muddle of updates that stuff things up? Go for it. Like your Apple phone? Then make sure you've got an iPad or Mac to go with it to take full advantage.
Just look up the specs of the newest Lumia 640XL - all for around $300 unlocked. Manufactured in ex Nokia factories, great battery life and a whopping 5.7" screen.
MS will win this. Give them a few years.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
IIRC QNX can deliver a POSIX environment in ~32kiB of RAM (kernel + process manager). Why would that have a "negative appeal"?
Popcorn futures are already up 5%. This is going to be fun!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
why would Microsoft double down on a dying dud? nothing there but dead weight, a black hole.
patents are cheaper in Chapter 7.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
wait it out, enter the auction. much smarter business.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
You can't buy either hot dogs or beer at Tim Hortons.
And pretty much nobody actually says "eh", and never has.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I'm liking my passport fwiw. Quite happy with it.
It generates lots of "what is that?" questions. (Funniest one thus far: "A Blackberry, what, are you Canadian?")
By the time BlackBerry is assimilated (or recovers) I will be on to a different handset.
Your Canadian citizenship should be rescinded. There's gobs and gobs of people who excessively say "eh". The worst are the ones who stop their story so you acknowledge their "eh" before continuing.
Also, my dad says it a lot more as the number of drinks in him increases.
And pretty much nobody actually says "eh", and never has.
Yes, I know. And nobody in Canada ever liked hockey. And curling is just some sport made up for people to think Canadians have figured out how to bowl on ice. But Canada doesn't have ice either. These myths aboot Canada have all been made up to make the rest of the world think that Canadians are something other than humorless automatons. Indeed, Canadians have no sense of humor.
Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
If Canadians had a sense of humor, that second season of JPod would have happened....
Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.