Struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry has been on the auction block for more than a year, but no one has really wanted it. That’s the latest from a report by Bloomberg News which noted that JPMorgan Chase & Co. and RBC Capital Markets have discussed the deal for months with potential suitors, but no one stepped up.
The report follows news this week that the smartphone maker has formed a special committee to “explore strategic alternatives,” though as Todd Bishop noted yesterday there’s really not a clear cut buyer for the company. Microsoft has been discussed as a potential acquirer, but Todd wrote yesterday that “the lack of operating system compatibility with BlackBerry would make an outright acquisition by Microsoft a bit of a stretch.”
Even more of a long shot is Amazon, which has been discussed as a potential buyer as well. Seems unlikely that Amazon would expand into the smartphone business in that way, since it has decided to build versus buy in many of its core areas.
BlackBerry has failed to compete against Samsung’s Galaxy line and Apple’s iPhone, and its market share is now in the low single digits, coming in at just 2.9 percent in Q2.
In today’s Bloomberg Report, it was noted that private equity firms also were not interested in buying BlackBerry. However, the report suggested that Toronto businessman Prem Watsa, who just stepped down from the board and whose investment firm owns 10 percent of the company, might make an offer to take the company private.
