The chance is low for BlackBerry to be acquired by any rival companies after the Canada-based smartphone vendor announced recently that it has formed a special committee to explore strategic alternatives, which include the sale of the company, to enhance value and increase scale in order to accelerate the deployment of BlackBerry 10, according to sources at Taiwan handset makers.
But the possibility would be higher for BlackBerry to sell its property in pieces instead of selling the company in a lump sum packaged deal, the sources added.
The formation of the special committee comes after the vendor saw its share in the global smartphone market sink to 3% recently, even though it has launched a number of models in its BlackBerry 10 family, including the BlackBerry Z10, Q10 and Q5, in order to shore up its market share.
BlackBerry also said that alternatives could include possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships, alliances, or other possible transactions.
Smartphone vendors in the Android camp will be less enthusiastic about taking over the management of BlackBerry due to the low popularity of the BlackBerry 10 platform as well as the high cost for maintaining the operations of a handset platform, the sources commented.
However, companies such as IBM and Cisco Systems which target business users, may be interesting in taking over BlackBerry's wireless business service platform; and those like Samsung Electronics or Amazon are likely to be interested in acquiring the BlackBerry 10 platform and related patents to step into the business service segment, the sources indicated.
Article translated by Steve Shen
