Beleaguered BlackBerry may go private in an eleventh-hour decision to revive its fortunes and ensure a future for the Canadian company.
"There is a change of tone on the board," an anonymous source close to the matter told Reuters, as CEO Thorsten Heins looks to buy time to recoup the company out of the public's eye.
While there has been no official word on a private sale, the move, VentureBeat argues, would be sensible. “One of the big problems for a struggling company like BlackBerry is the constant presence of journalists, investors, and stockholders analyzing every one of its moves and every line of its balance sheet.”
BlackBerry, which has experienced a catastrophic fall from mobile fame in the mid-2000s has been unable to drum up enough consumer excitement—or sales—to counter moves made by competing mobile companies like Apple and Samsung. Its shares have fallen 19 percent this year and its market value has decreased to $4.8 billion from $84 billion at its peak in 2008.
While shares surged 10 percent on the news of Reuters' report, analysts don't feel that the rumors have enough financial backing to ring true. "I don't expect this rally to last," BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis told MarketWatch. "You have to be highly skeptical of anonymous sources when there are no sources of capital. The company's turnaround position is still very questionable. I don't buy it."
The company had waged a lot against its launch of its BlackBerry 10 line of phones, but the devices were not recieved well, with consumers complaining that there was a lack of apps and problems with syncing. At its shareholder meeting in July, the company admitted that it had made a mistake. “Were we perfect at the launch?” Heins said. “Probably not. Was it a disaster? I don’t think so.” The company reported that it had only shipped 2.7 million device, nearly one million short of its target.
“The company’s subscriber numbers are contracting, its marketshare has eroded into nothingness, and it’s bleeding executives and employees,” commented VentureBeat. “In short, any talks about BlackBerry going private are just one component of the larger ongoing issue: BlackBerry needs more time to fix its problems. Unfortunately, time is not something it has terribly much of.”
The company has reportedly considered licensing its BlackBerry 10 software and other partnerships with companies like Silver Lake Partners for collaboration on enterprise computing services, but there has yet to be any breakthroughs for its mobile division.
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