On Monday, the company made a statement that it has made a special committee to explore its options. They include partnership, outright sale, a joint venture or something completely out of the box.
Reuters Report (BlackBerry Board member Timothy Dattels):
“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,â€
This shows BlackBerry is aware it’s hard to compete with Android or Apple, so it wants to place itself in a safe position while securing the worth of its BBM technology.
The BlackBerry Z10 release was quite too late, and it wasn’t able to succeed in competing with the iPad. The other problem was that Apple and Android grabbed BlackBerry’s market share right under its nose and in reaction to declining revenue, BlackBerry has decreased its costs.
Will the sale of the company help BlackBerry? Perhaps, but the picture looks good only in the short term. Shares of the company rose by 9.4 percent in early trading. However, the picture looks gloomy when long-term aspects are considered.
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While a change in structure could result in a higher stock price in the near term, we do not envision any changes that would help BlackBerry reverse the significant smartphone share loss or rapid decline in service revenues.
BlackBerry 10 software has some hopes for the company and is a bright spot. The company is now shifting towards service and software provider. The company has announced BlackBerry Messaging service for Android and iOS and also unveiled Secure Work Space.
This isn’t the first time that a company has cut back on hardware to focus on services and software. IBM and Intel are examples of doing that in PC market. BlackBerry however can still produce innovative smartphone softwares, which will be an attraction for buyers.
So what do you think ? Is BlackBerry going to die very soon ?
