BlackBerry Wants To Sell Itself Quickly: Report

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that BlackBerry is looking for a quick sale of itself:

The smartphone maker announced in August that it had formed a special committee of board members to “explore strategic alternatives.”

 Since then, the company has held preliminary talks with parties interested in buying part or all of the company, one of the people said.

 It has narrowed its list of potential bidders to seek out in a sales process expected to begin soon, this person said.

It is far from guaranteed any serious bids will materialize or that the company will pull off a sale in that time frame, if at all. But BlackBerry’s board is pushing for a quick resolution to the sales process, one of the people said.

So, who are the potential buyers. Here’s a potential list that the Journal complied:

People close to the process say that financial players in Canada and the U.S., such as Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Bain Capital, are expected to consider bids, as well as some Asian tech companies including Chinese smartphone and computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd.

So, why the rush? It’s the uncertainty around it’s future that is driving this. You’ll recall that one of my customers is going from being a BlackBerry shop to being an iPhone shop because the were spooked by the strategic review. So it’s safe to say that other companies feel exactly the same way, and that’s not going to help BlackBerry gain market share. But it is helping it’s stock which is up 3% in pre-market trading.

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