1. QXS's Avatar
    So if I ever have to answer "I thought BlackBerry was going out of businesses " I want to make sure I have an accurate answer.

    To my current understanding:
    BlackBerry was in a bad place, they were losing money like an open wound. To try and settle things down Thorsten Heins, the CEO at the time, tried to sell BlackBerry for parts. Then the media hyped everything up and convinced people BlackBerry was going out of businesses. After BlackBerry realized no one was interested in them, they got a large investment from (forgot their name) and booted Heins. The new CEO, John Chen(Much easier to remember his name), has been slowly cleaning up after Heins and reducing the amount of money BlackBerry has been losing.

    Now I know I'm no expert and I haven't really looked into everything, so I was hoping you guys at CB could help me polish up this response.
    10-11-14 02:29 PM
  2. Playbook007's Avatar
    The did have one or two suitors, but if you were not a Canadian firm, the Canadian Government was not allowing a sale for security reasons. Now if BlackBerry was allowed to be sold internationally then you would have seen offers. On another point, Prem Whatsa was the investor.

    Posted via CB10
    10-11-14 03:06 PM
  3. Jtaylor1986's Avatar
    Sort of accurate. Some of the timing isn't exactly right though.
    10-11-14 04:13 PM
  4. Jtaylor1986's Avatar
    I don't think anyone ever wanted to break the company up. No one that would be been approved by the regulators wanted to buy the company whole though so they planned to take it private to take everything out of the spotlight. Basically once they dug into it though it wasn't a viable option so they decided to issue 1.25 billion of debt to make sure they had enough cash
    10-11-14 04:17 PM
  5. SlcCorrado's Avatar
    Fairfax led an investment group that invested a billion dollars in BlackBerry. Not Prem personally
    10-11-14 04:27 PM
  6. Cozz4ever's Avatar
    So if I ever have to answer "I thought BlackBerry was going out of businesses " I want to make sure I have an accurate answer.

    To my current understanding:
    BlackBerry was in a bad place, they were losing money like an open wound. To try and settle things down Thorsten Heins, the CEO at the time, tried to sell BlackBerry for parts. Then the media hyped everything up and convinced people BlackBerry was going out of businesses. After BlackBerry realized no one was interested in them, they got a large investment from (forgot their name) and booted Heins. The new CEO, John Chen(Much easier to remember his name), has been slowly cleaning up after Heins and reducing the amount of money BlackBerry has been losing.

    Now I know I'm no expert and I haven't really looked into everything, so I was hoping you guys at CB could help me polish up this response.
    No. Canada wouldn't allow the sale of blackberry to out of their country. Lenevo was interested in Blackberry.

    All I want for Christmas is a Passport
    10-11-14 04:40 PM
  7. bspence87's Avatar
    So if I ever have to answer "I thought BlackBerry was going out of businesses " I want to make sure I have an accurate answer.

    To my current understanding:
    BlackBerry was in a bad place, they were losing money like an open wound. To try and settle things down Thorsten Heins, the CEO at the time, tried to sell BlackBerry for parts. Then the media hyped everything up and convinced people BlackBerry was going out of businesses. After BlackBerry realized no one was interested in them, they got a large investment from (forgot their name) and booted Heins. The new CEO, John Chen(Much easier to remember his name), has been slowly cleaning up after Heins and reducing the amount of money BlackBerry has been losing.

    Now I know I'm no expert and I haven't really looked into everything, so I was hoping you guys at CB could help me polish up this response.
    Sort of, but not really..

    TH didn't try to sell the company. He formed a team to evaluate "strategic options" which included a list of options. One of the options was a sale of the company, but that was in the case of a large corporation with a lot of money purchasing them and leaving them as-is. The media took it out of context, turning it into "BlackBerry is selling itself to avoid bankruptcy".

    During this time many companies showed interest in BlackBerry, but most had ill-intentions like breaking the company up, moving operations to China. Once again, the media (after making tons of money off of the previous false-reporting) took the situation out of context, stating "Nobody wants BlackBerry". This sent BlackBerry shares into a freefall, creating more negative press and a general lack of confidence in the company from potential customers

    BlackBerry's largest shareholder, Prem Watsa, made an offer to buy the company for $9/share (pending financing) in an attempt to stop the freefall and to take the company private (and out of the eye of the ravenous media). When the deadline for Watsa's financing came up, there was a lot of uncertainty about whether he would be able to come up with the money. Ultimately, it seemed that he couldn't, but instead described it as "being advised against it as a bad financial decision".

    In a continued attempt to save the freefall, Watsa's company Fairfax Financial collected investors to loan BlackBerry money and buy them time. On the day of this announcement, Thorsten Heins also stepped down and replaced by one of the world's best CEO's, John Chen.

    Chen immediately started work on properly allocating resources at BlackBerry, managing finances better and (underestimatedly) cleaning up their public image with witty remarks, clear plans and bold moves. The result is the Passport, new ad campaigns and a lot of people getting interested in BlackBerry and wondering why they were told that they were going out of business.

    Posted via CB10
    10-11-14 04:51 PM
  8. sentimentGX4's Avatar
    After BlackBerry realized no one was interested in them, they got a large investment from (forgot their name) and booted Heins. The new CEO, John Chen(Much easier to remember his name), has been slowly cleaning up after Heins and reducing the amount of money BlackBerry has been losing.
    It was more of a token investment from Fairfax (esp. relative to Blackberry's funds) rather than a large investment.

    Fairfax submitted a letter of intent to buy Blackberry for $9/share and then reneged on its offer. Now Fairfax is the largest Blackberry shareholder and to save face for Blackberry, Fairfax offered Blackberry a $1 billion loan.
    10-11-14 05:16 PM
  9. donnation's Avatar
    Not really an accurate description of what has gone on with Blackberry.

    Thorsten's initial plans weren't to sell Blackberry for parts. Thorsten launched BB10 and would have launched the Passport had he kept his job as it was in the works long before JC took the reins. They were in a horrific spot before Thorsten was brought in due to bad decision made by the former CEO's Mike Lazaridis and Jim Basillie. Thorsten launched BB10 as a last gasp for the company and the phones that were launched (Z10, Q10, Z30) flopped so the decision was made to put the company up for sale. No one offered them a price that was worth what the company was valued so they didnt sell and Fairfax financial stepped in and kept the company afloat.

    Thorsten was fired as he wasn't seen as someone that could lead the company and even said publicly that there was nothing wrong with the company as it stood at the time (which was comical). Blackberry found Chen who was known for being able to cut costs and turn companies around. Chen has launched the Passport which was a device that was already in the works before he took the helm.

    This is the Cliffs notes version but its a little more accurate than what you described above. And the question of "Blackberry is going out of business" questions were being asked long before the Passport was being launched and the same types of answers were being given when the Z10 and Q10 were launched that "Blackberry is back."
    10-11-14 09:07 PM
  10. bspence87's Avatar
    Not really an accurate description of what has gone on with Blackberry.

    Thorsten's initial plans weren't to sell Blackberry for parts. Thorsten launched BB10 and would have launched the Passport had he kept his job as it was in the works long before JC took the reins. They were in a horrific spot before Thorsten was brought in due to bad decision made by the former CEO's Mike Lazaridis and Jim Basillie. Thorsten launched BB10 as a last gasp for the company and the phones that were launched (Z10, Q10, Z30) flopped so the decision was made to put the company up for sale. No one offered them a price that was worth what the company was valued so they didnt sell and Fairfax financial stepped in and kept the company afloat.

    Thorsten was fired as he wasn't seen as someone that could lead the company and even said publicly that there was nothing wrong with the company as it stood at the time (which was comical). Blackberry found Chen who was known for being able to cut costs and turn companies around. Chen has launched the Passport which was a device that was already in the works before he took the helm.

    This is the Cliffs notes version but its a little more accurate than what you described above. And the question of "Blackberry is going out of business" questions were being asked long before the Passport was being launched and the same types of answers were being given when the Z10 and Q10 were launched that "Blackberry is back."
    The Passport has been in the works for six years, long before TH. Chen gave it the go-ahead. Pretty tough to know how the handoff went.

    ...but that's besides the point. OP was asking how they got their reputation of going bankrupt and how to explain that they are not.

    Posted via CB10
    10-12-14 07:05 AM
  11. donnation's Avatar
    The Passport has been in the works for six years, long before TH. Chen gave it the go-ahead. Pretty tough to know how the handoff went.

    ...but that's besides the point. OP was asking how they got their reputation of going bankrupt and how to explain that they are not.

    Posted via CB10
    Where on earth do you get that the Passport was in development for 6 years? BB didn't acquire QNX until 2010 so I'm not sure where you are getting that information.
    10-12-14 07:10 AM
  12. robsteve's Avatar
    Where on earth do you get that the Passport was in development for 6 years? BB didn't acquire QNX until 2010 so I'm not sure where you are getting that information.
    It was mention during the Passport launch in the video they presented on stage. The designers had been working on the concept for six years.

    Posted via CB10
    bspence87 and spikesolie like this.
    10-12-14 08:01 AM
  13. bspence87's Avatar
    It was mention during the Passport launch in the video they presented on stage. The designers had been working on the concept for six years.

    Posted via CB10
    Thanks Robsteve! Wasn't sure where I had seen it.

    Also not sure what QNX has to do with hardware.

    Posted via CB10
    10-12-14 08:28 AM
  14. donnation's Avatar
    It was mention during the Passport launch in the video they presented on stage. The designers had been working on the concept for six years.

    Posted via CB10
    Right...
    10-12-14 08:55 AM
  15. --TommesJay--'s Avatar
    There was this Forbes article about the Passport and I'll just leave the maybe most important quote of it here:

    "It?s time the industry starts thinking about BlackBerry as a software and infrastructure company which also happens to makes handsets that cater to an elite market."

    Posted via CB10
    QXS likes this.
    10-12-14 09:28 AM

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