Former BlackBerry Ltd.BB.T+0.73% co-Chief Executive Officer Mike Lazaridis has been talking with private-equity firms about possibly mounting a joint bid for the struggling smartphone maker, whose troubles came into even sharper relief Friday, according to people familiar with the matter.
Firms Mr. Lazaridis reached out to include Blackstone Group LPBX0.00% and Carlyle Group LPCG-0.45%, some of the people said.
Last month, BlackBerry officially put itself up for sale after years of ceding market share to rivals including Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Mr. Lazaridis, who co-founded BlackBerry and left the Waterloo, Ontario-based company in May, held nearly 6% of its equity earlier this year. That stake and his knowledge of the company could come in handy for a private-equity firm considering a bid for part or all of BlackBerry. It is not clear, however, what type of deal exactly Mr. Lazaridis has been contemplating, or whether any such deal will be struck.
Mr. Lazaridis couldn?t be reached and BlackBerry declined to comment on any possible bid involving him.
Private-equity players in Canada and the U.S., and possibly tech companies in Asia, have been considering a possible deal for BlackBerry since the company put itself up for sale. The prospect of a quick sale of BlackBerry, already in doubt, became even cloudier Friday when the company announced that its revenue in the second fiscal quarter will total about $1.6 billion, less than half of what analysts had been expecting.
BlackBerry shares, already pummeled as the company?s prospects have steadily eroded, fell another 17% on the news to close at $8.73, giving the one-time industry giant a market value of just $4.6 billion.
BlackBerry, which once controlled more than half of the U.S. smartphone market, now has just over 2%, according to research firm IDC. The embattled smartphone maker said in a statement Friday that it will shed some 4,500 jobs, or more than a third of its workforce.
BlackBerry is seeking to run a quick sales process in the hopes of finding a buyer for the company by November, people familiar with the matter have said.
