Canadian phone maker Blackberry is back in the news just days after a report stated that they are still losing the market share in the U.S. Blackberry’s latest rumor is that they are considering taking the company private. Their struggles have been well publicized, and this year’s effort to revive the company with their Blackberry 10 phone models have been a bust. According to reuters.com:
“Chief Executive Thorsten Heins and the company’s board is increasingly coming around to the idea that taking BlackBerry private would give them breathing room to fix its problems out of the public eye.
‘There is a change of tone on the board,’ sources said on Thursday.
“No deal is imminent, however, and BlackBerry has not launched any kind of a sale process, the sources said. Even if it tried, BlackBerry could find it hard to come up with a buyer and the funding to go private. With the company still posting losses and bleeding subscribers, private equity firms and other buyers may not want to step up.”
The Bloomberg video above tells how going private could help Blackberry. The video sheds light on possible partners for the Canadian company to consider, as they don’t have enough cash on their balance sheet to make a deal like this. Private equity firm Silver Lake Capital is already being mentioned in the possible mix. However, going private may not be that easy. Just take a look at Dell’s attempt at the same plan. As reported by bloomberg.com:
“BlackBerry has held recent discussions with Silver Lake about collaborating in enterprise computing, though the talks didn’t involve a buyout or other transaction, Reuters said.
“Personal-computer maker Dell Inc. has spent this year pursuing a leveraged buyout with Silver Lake against opposition from billionaire financier Carl Icahn and other shareholders.”
Going private may be the only option for Blackberry at this point. As the video above states, no other company is interested is purchasing them at this point. Making matters worse, the deal would have to be approved by the Canadian government, and they have made it clear that they want to keep Blackberry’s assets within the country.
Sound like more dire straights for Blackberry. But you didn’t need to be psychic to see that coming.
