[lcjr]

If they buy the company, they have complete say in how the company is run...

That can be scary. I mean, just because a corporation can afford to make the purchase and profit from what they buy doesn't mean that's best for BB. PERSONALLY, I think BB could use some help with their devices/specs but their software is the glue holding them together. It would be a shame for a buyer to come in a jack that all up.

[m1a1mg]

That can be scary. I mean, just because a corporation can afford to make the purchase and profit from what they buy doesn't mean that's best for BB. PERSONALLY, I think BB could use some help with their devices/specs but their software is the glue holding them together. It would be a shame for a buyer to come in a jack that all up.

You have to make up your mind if you're in this because you love BlackBerry or because you want to make money. And yes, I think the two are mutually exclusive now. Time for some tough choices. Any big company buys it, they'll take what they need and sell the rest. A PE buys it, other than Prem, it probably gets broken into pieces and sold. Heck, even Prem has to answer to his Fairfax share holders first.

[bungaboy]

Be careful what you ask for....

Exactly. ROFL. BK was, hopefully, enjoying some quiet time.

[lcjr]

I'd rather love BB and make money! haha. That's what I'm affraid of though, that a buyer will come in and ruin everything. They just got the DoD approval, other major corporations are jumping on board with BB10, and there's the QNX. It would be a shame for all that to go to waste. I'd prefer they go private for a year and then come back out ready to take on the market again with a fresh statrt. I'd buy back in at that point too if the SP wasn't to high. Just don't want to see them ripped apart if sold.

[Superfly_FR]

Guys, I'm running after the pages with a very slow and unstable connexion ... But I think this has not been posted yet :
Five alternative futures for BlackBerry | ZDNet

BlackBerry was for a long time was the undisputed leader in enterprise smartphones, and enjoyed considerable success for a time in the consumer space too. Since then, it's faded dramatically: across five of Europe's biggest markets — Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany – BlackBerry now has a mere 2.2 percent market share, while its new BlackBerry 10-based handsets haven't been the breakthrough hits the company had hoped.


In the enterprise, BlackBerry has been undermined by the growth of the bring your own device culture — which has resulted in a huge influx of iPhones and Android devices into the business — while its attempt to break into the tablet market with the PlayBook had met with little success.
Now BlackBerry has revealed its board of directors has formed a "special committee" to explore strategic alternatives for the business which could include joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the company or what it calls "other possible transactions".
"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," Timothy Dattels, chairman of BlackBerry's special committee, said in a statement. However, the company noted that there is no certainty "that this exploration process will result in any transaction".
BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins said that while the special committee looks at alternatives the company will continuing with its strategy of reducing costs, driving efficiency and accelerating the deployment of BES 10, "as well as driving adoption of BlackBerry 10 smartphones, launching the multi-platform BBM social messaging service, and pursuing mobile computing opportunities by leveraging the secure and reliable BlackBerry Global Data Network".
So what possible futures is BlackBerry now facing?
Partnerships

The company emphasised its desire to accelerate BlackBerry 10 deployments in its statement, and one way to achieve that would be to license out the operating system to other handset manufacturers in an effort to regain some critical mass.
After all, despite initial scepticism, BlackBerry 10 has met with largely positive reviews and is generally seen as well built and secure.
However, this route hasn't proved fruitful for the company in the past. BlackBerry has already been looking at licensing for a while without much to show for it: last year it engaged JP Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to help with a strategic review of how to leverage the BlackBerry platform through partnerships or licensing opportunities. And while BlackBerry 10 is a solid OS, there are a number of well-known alternatives — Android in particular — available to handset makers as well as a growing number of upstarts in form of Windows Phone, Tizen and Ubuntu Touch.
If it touted the OS around and saw no interest in the past, it's therefore unlikely that it would see any this time around, when its market share is even smaller.
Take the company private

Going private in itself can't fix the problems that BlackBerry has, but could give it the breathing space it needs.
Michael Dell's ongoing attempt to take Dell private has made the idea of tech companies going private suddenly fashionable again. The benefits are that it allows the owners to make the tough long term decisions needed to fix a company without having Wall Street rubbernecking and second guessing its every move.
BlackBerry has cash reserves and is far smaller that Dell so going private is a realistic option, assuming it can get a private equity firm interested. But that leaves the question of what would BlackBerry do to turn the business around even if it became a private company? If this is a route that BlackBerry pursues, the private equity firm that buys the company — and the direction they choose for it — will determine if it can return to something like health or be sold for scrap.
Sell the company

BlackBerry has been linked with a number of potential suitors over the past few years, from Lenovo to Amazon to Samsung and Microsoft. Some of these might be interested again, but there are a few others who might be tempted too: HP for example might consider taking another tilt at enterprise mobile, or even Dell.
However, there's no obvious candidate for a buyer these days. Many hardware makers have exited the mobile business in recent years and for those wanting to get into the business again or even for the first time, there are cheaper and easier ways to do so out there.
Break up

Another option may be to break the company up, by selling the various assets off — BlackBerry's thousands of mobile patents could be extremely attractive to Google or Apple, for example. It could even separate the hardware and software sides of the company, and concentrate on developing its MDM and enterprise software business — a business that still has a future whether its handsets sink or swim.
However, at least one analyst rates this as unlikely. Wells Fargo Securities senior analyst Maynard Um said in a research note: "With regard to asset sales, we believe BBRY would have the most value as a whole though there could be interest in various parts of the company — OS for the automotive or smartphone market, infrastructure for security, intellectual property, enterprise subscriber base, et al."
Do nothing

As BlackBerry's statement notes, "there can be no assurance that this exploration process will result in any transaction". It could be that after looking at all the options BlackBerry still decides to go it alone. It still has a strong brand, a reasonable enterprise customer base and some attractive technologies — it could be that a leaner BlackBerry can find a place for itself in the mobile ecosystem.
But, as Larry Dignan points out, it's going to be hard for BlackBerry to pretend that it will business as usual while all this goes on, and customers and staff will be unsettled and in limbo. The sooner the uncertainty is resolved — however it is resolved — the better.

Why is that the more I think, the more I believe Heins and Boulben may have make their own coin ... ?
Anyways, that's Grooooooovayyyyy (and we need MORE COWBELL, kinda sorta !)

[m1a1mg]

The DoD is a BIGGIE!

It still could be, as the majority of phones in the DoD are BB. But the ATO does not mean what a bunch of Canadians and a Greek think it does?

Don't believe me, check other posters on the board like Sith and qbnkelt. They know.

[take99]

I'm not questioning the general knowledge of those two posters, however I didn't find their posts on that particular thread to be very enlightening at all. Sith was talking about DISA choosing another MDM system, when as far as I know, they just contracted DMI to build/run it, which imo will include some of DMI's 'partners' such as BBRY, fixmo and others. I think that obviously BB's influence at Dod will be diminished, but to what extent is anyone's guess at this point. The ATO means what it states, they want the capacity to be able to manage 30k devices by the end of the year. Not huge, but not peanuts either as the implementation calls for 100k devices in fy14 I believe.

It still could be, as the majority of phones in the DoD are BB. But the ATO does not mean what a bunch of Canadians and a Greek think it does?

Don't believe me, check other posters on the board like Sith and qbnkelt. They know.

[m1a1mg]

I'm not questioning the general knowledge of those two posters, however I didn't find their posts on that particular thread to be very enlightening at all. Sith was talking about DISA choosing another MDM system, when as far as I know, they just contracted DMI to build/run it, which imo will include some of DMI's 'partners' such as BBRY, fixmo and others. I think that obviously BB's influence at Dod will be diminished, but to what extent is anyone's guess at this point. The ATO means what it states, they want the capacity to be able to manage 30k devices by the end of the year. Not huge, but not peanuts either as the implementation calls for 100k devices in fy14 I believe.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with any part of your post. BBRY may turn things around and dominate the DoD like they once did. But the news of the ATO isn't "huge" and repeating it doesn't make it any more true.

[Bilaal]

If (and I emphasize on the IF) this stock was to reach $18-$19 before anything happened, especially before earnings call, you know I'll be the first to sell and wait for it to drop. However, I don't want it to reach such levels and then an offer is made which shoots the stock to lord knows what, talk about a facepalm and then some.

(This post is basically just my thoughts written out)

[BergerKing]

Exactly. ROFL. BK was, hopefully, enjoying some quiet time.

It has been pretty decent. Everyone has been doing a great job managing the flow of things with all the excitement the last couple of days. It's been more Febreze than gavel today, now that I'm back from a couple of days at home.

[take99]

I think the days of 'domination' are gone as DISA has repeatedly stated they want a multi-platform future so they don't get stuck if a company goes down, but they will remain a large player imho, especially where greater security is needed.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with any part of your post. BBRY may turn things around and dominate the DoD like they once did. But the news of the ATO isn't "huge" and repeating it doesn't make it any more true.

[notfanboy]

(This post is basically just my thoughts written out)

Unless you're quoting, isn't that what all posts are?

[Shanerredflag]

I will contribute this Balal....taken verbatim from a future multimillionaire :

"Balls of Steel"


Nuff Said.

Posted via CB10

[Bilaal]

Unless you're quoting, isn't that what all posts are?

Lol, I knew someone was going to say this

[app_Developer]

lol apple could buy blackberry with their quarterly profit, actually not a bad deal for them, they need to spend cash anyway instead of letting it all sit offshore

Cook could put it on his corporate card.

[take99]

read this if you're interested in the DISA MDM stuff

Why The Hush Around DISA's Mobility Award? - Government - Mobile &

It hasn't helped that the winner of the award, DMI, has been unusually reticent to talk about the component technologies that it chose and which represent the real stars of the DISA award. Even executives associated with the winning deal, who are respected as thought leaders in the mobile community, have been notably silent in discussing even the basic elements of the solution.

The DISA MDM/MAS award is a landmark decision for mobile transformation in government and industry. The hush surrounding its implementation serves to hamper progress elsewhere. It is strange that an innocuous and widely talked about award -- with widespread repercussions for worldwide mobile deployments -- would seemingly be under a press "gag order."

[kfh227]

read this if you're interested in the DISA MDM stuff

Why The Hush Around DISA's Mobility Award? - Government - Mobile &

It hasn't helped that the winner of the award, DMI, has been unusually reticent to talk about the component technologies that it chose and which represent the real stars of the DISA award. Even executives associated with the winning deal, who are respected as thought leaders in the mobile community, have been notably silent in discussing even the basic elements of the solution.

The DISA MDM/MAS award is a landmark decision for mobile transformation in government and industry. The hush surrounding its implementation serves to hamper progress elsewhere. It is strange that an innocuous and widely talked about award -- with widespread repercussions for worldwide mobile deployments -- would seemingly be under a press "gag order."

Everything Dod is need to know.

Pieces of it may be secret or top secret. If the CIA is involved somehow, there might even be more reason to be quiet.

Point is, when in doubt you don't speak.

Posted via CB10

[3_M4N]

The cross platform BBM and BES10. If those don't generate enough revenue (and sales are still sinking in the hardware and BB is not profitable) than BB is in a bigger hole. December ER might even be a bit early, March may be a worthwhile wait. However, if BB is still not profitable and they are in their so called Phase 3, I'm out.

If BBM gets widely adopted, they may not need significant revenue to raise valuations. Investors seem to like tech/social companies that are popular, even if they don't have attractive revenue streams.

Posted while peeking and flowing on my incredible BBQ10!

[sparkaction]

If BBM gets widely adopted, they may not need significant revenue to raise valuations. Investors seem to like tech/social companies that are popular, even if they don't have attractive revenue streams.

Posted while peeking and flowing on my incredible BBQ10!

Even if BlackBerry achieved the same level of subscribers it would receive the bbry valuation discount. Management needs to deliver on forecasts for this discount to decline to zero.

[lcjr]

Everything Dod is need to know.

Pieces of it may be secret or top secret. If the CIA is involved somehow, there might even be more reason to be quiet.

Point is, when in doubt you don't speak.

Posted via CB10

Now that would be interesting. Imagine high visibility agencies outside the DoD jumping on board with BB10.

[kfh227]

Now that would be interesting. Imagine high visibility agencies outside the DoD jumping on board with BB10.

Actually, post 9-11, the agencies in the USA are supposed to be more transparent with each other. There may be more truth to this than we realize.

Posted via CB10

[lcjr]

Actually, post 9-11, the agencies in the USA are supposed to be more transparent with each other. There may be more truth to this than we realize.

Posted via CB10

Unfortunately it's not like that yet. We have almost every organization running their own operation using their own procedures. I'm hoping DISA will come up with something all government agencies join in on. Maybe this new project will be the one.

[m1a1mg]

Everything Dod is need to know.

Pieces of it may be secret or top secret. If the CIA is involved somehow, there might even be more reason to be quiet.

Point is, when in doubt you don't speak.

Posted via CB10

I don't know how the CIA would be involved. DISA is only DoD.

[lcjr]

I don't know how the CIA would be involved. DISA is only DoD.

I believe he was just commenting on the possibility of CIA maybe being involved in joining the BB10 software. He knows they aren't DoD.

[lcjr]

Speaking of which, i think it would be cool to know what devices all the other government agencies use. There's so many too.