[New_Z10]

N4BB reports that BlackBerry has been looking for buyers since 2012 with no takers. No company wants to buy the entire firm. It looks like their strategic options are severely limited. Why can't the y employ a strategic plan that envisions and delivers a new user experience. The z10 is meh - this is not a marketing problem- its a failure to understand the market itself. Why?

Posted via CB10

[EauRouge]

They're not in debt, and still have cash in the bank. I say they keep going. No buyers

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[New_Z10]

Z10. Not Z20.

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[treaker]

I say go private.
This way, they can do what they need to do without interference or the media.

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[kbz1960]

I say go private.
This way, they can do what they need to do without interference or the media.

Posted via CB10

You think just because they go private media is going to leave them alone?

[Nathend]

I'm really trying to understand how exactly everyone (well not Everyone) thinks BB going private is going to make a difference.
If you really think long and hard about it ,BB issues were not because they were not a private Company in fact the opposite could be argued that because they were not private they had to move along quickly to try to catch up for all the lost time.
Executing , planning ,innovating , and all the other criteria the Company needs to meet is not a given nor a sure way to success because your a private Business. If that were the case then all the Company's would be so.
BB's issues are known (they sat on seat doing nothing too long ) and sadly they now find them selves always behind the ball.

[CrackedBarry]

I'm really trying to understand how exactly everyone (well not Everyone) thinks BB going private is going to make a difference.
If you really think long and hard about it ,BB issues were not because they were not a private Company in fact the opposite could be argued that because they were not private they had to move along quickly to try to catch up for all the lost time.
Executing , planning ,innovating , and all the other criteria the Company needs to meet is not a given nor a sure way to success because your a private Business. If that were the case then all the Company's would be so.
BB's issues are known (they sat on seat doing nothing too long ) and sadly they now find them selves always behind the ball.

Because by going private they wouldn't have to concern themselves with the stock price too much. And more importantly, they wouldn't have to show their quarterly results, with all the focus that brings to lack of sales, dwindling profits and subscriber numbers, etc.

[anon(1035135)]

I'm really trying to understand how exactly everyone (well not Everyone) thinks BB going private is going to make a difference.
If you really think long and hard about it ,BB issues were not because they were not a private Company in fact the opposite could be argued that because they were not private they had to move along quickly to try to catch up for all the lost time.
Executing , planning ,innovating , and all the other criteria the Company needs to meet is not a given nor a sure way to success because your a private Business. If that were the case then all the Company's would be so.
BB's issues are known (they sat on seat doing nothing too long ) and sadly they now find them selves always behind the ball.

I see what you're saying, but don't necessarily agree with all of it. Look at where they are at now. Great phone, updated OS, and still no one wants to touch BB. Everyone is scared off because of all the bad press from quarterly results feedback. The general public doesn't understand what those numbers mean and aren't willing to investigate BB's financial status.. They just hear "BB results disappointing" and then write them off. So, while implementation, execution, etc., does play a role, so does public perception driven by the media. Going private would at least make the disappointing information harder to access.

[njblackberry]

Do you understand how a publicly traded company "goes private"?
Someone, a group of someones and/or hedge funds have to loan the money to buy up the shares required (75% for Canadian listed companies).

A group of BlackBerry employees don't say "hey, let's go private so we don't have to answer to anyone about how we are doing".

You shift one set of owners (publicly traded shares with nosy stockholders) for another (leveraged buyers with nosy management) who will STILL want to make money and not sit around asking Alicia Keys how to Keep Moving!

[app_Developer]

Because by going private they wouldn't have to concern themselves with the stock price too much. And more importantly, they wouldn't have to show their quarterly results, with all the focus that brings to lack of sales, dwindling profits and subscriber numbers, etc.

There a couple of issues with that, though.

1.) Larger developers will still want to see BB10 sales numbers and Blackberry's financial outlook in order to make decisions about apps. Without that information, larger developers just won't make apps (except for certain games), because they won't know how Blackberry is doing.

2.) Blackberry will have to share financial information with large corporations and government agencies when they take decisions on whether to roll out BB10 to their employees.

3.) The BB10 sales numbers will still be out there from IDC, etc. The financials won't be there, but the sales numbers will still be out there for people to react.

[gitchies]

Go private, get rid of the old mentality that still exist on the board......if not, heck the old thinking of Jim and Mike do some more good for them........they deserve it.....
but I guess Jim and Mike are just laughing now....all the way to the bank...

[njblackberry]

3.) The BB10 sales numbers will still be out there from IDC, etc. The financials won't be there, but the sales numbers will still be out there for people to react.

Didn't BBRY say in the last quarterly earning results that they would not be publishing subscriber counts? And they didn't even split BB10 sales out by device.

Transparency certainly isn't going to improve if they are private.

[Jakob Greve]

I would love to buy the Z20 gimme gimme gimme!

[MazoMark]

5 Stages of Corporate Decline:
1. Hubris - The "Our S$%^ Don't Stink" Phase. See RIM in 2005.
2. Undisciplined Pursuit of More - The "We Can Do Anything" phase. See let's launch a tablet without email capability.
3. Denial of Risk - The "We are so big, we can't lose" phase. See any quote from Lazaridis about iPhone.
4. Grasping for Salvation - The "This will fix everything" phase. See BB10.
5. Capitulation to Irrelevance - The "We're going down" phase. See any story on Blackberry in last week.

Companies can recover as late as Stage 4 (Xerox, Disney, IBM are examples), but once you hit Stage 5, the only way you come back is as a totally transformed and different company. Unfortunately, I think BB is in Stage 5 and is unlikely to survive intact.