Business: Sell, license its use to other manufacturers, split its activities, to withdraw from the Exchange system? A review of the choices open to the BlackBerry, after yesterday’s announcement of an exploration of “strategic alternatives.”
Long undisputed leader in smartphones for businesses and healthy as in the smartphone sector for individuals, BlackBerry has since experienced a slump: in the five largest European markets (the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Germany), the BlackBerry is now only 2.2% market share.
In business, the manufacturer has been undermined by the growth of the crop BYOD (” bring your own device “) – where an influx of iPhones and Android devices – while his attempt to emerge on the tablet market with the PlayBook has had little success.
BlackBerry announced yesterday that its Board of Directors has formed a committee “to explore strategic alternatives,” which “may include, among others, potential joint ventures, strategic partnerships and alliances, sale company or other possible transactions. ” While noting that it is not certain “that exploratory process will result in any transaction whatsoever.”
What are the possible futures for BlackBerry now
1 – Partnerships
company stressed in a statement yesterday on its desire to accelerate the rollout of its BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system, and that she could dismiss other handset manufacturers, in order to regain critical mass. After all, despite the initial skepticism, BlackBerry 10 has received largely positive feedback, and is generally considered safe and well designed.
However, this route has hardly been successful in the past for the company. BlackBerry has already planned a time to lay its own OS without much to show: last year it hired JP Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to assist in a strategic review of how to deploy the BlackBerry platform through partnerships or licensing opportunities. And even if BlackBerry 10 is a solid OS, there are many known alternatives – particularly Android – available for device manufacturers and others with long teeth, such as Windows Phone, Tizen and Ubuntu Touch
If the company has touted its OS in the past without arousing interest, it is unlikely that it collects now, while its market share is even lower.
2 – Removing Exchange
Back
private in itself will not solve the problems BlackBerry, but it can give oxygen it needs.
ongoing attempt to remove Michael Dell Dell Exchange suddenly back into fashion the idea that high-tech companies to the private return. The advantage is that it allows homeowners to take long-term decisions difficult but necessary to restore the company, without Wall Street windows to review every move.
BlackBerry has cash reserves and is much smaller than Dell, so the return to closed capital is a realistic option, if there is a private equity firm interested. But this leaves open the question of strategic options qu’adopterait BlackBerry, even if it is an unlisted company. In this option, the investment funds that buy the company – and the direction he chooses for it – will determine whether it can return to better health, or be sold for nothing
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3 – Sell the business
BlackBerry has been in contact with a number of potential buyers in recent years, Lenovo at Amazon via Samsung and Microsoft. Some might still be interested, but others might be tempted:. Example HP or even Dell
No acquirer does however seem obvious these days. Many hardware manufacturers have withdrawn from the mobile sector in recent years, and for those who want to return or even go for the first time, there are cheaper and easier ways to do it.
4 – Spin
Another option may be to dismantle the company by selling its various components of value – the thousands of patents in the mobile BlackBerry could be extremely interesting for Google or Apple, for example. One could even split the hardware and software of the company branches, and focus on the development of its business management software mobile terminals (MDM) and business – an area that will always be the future, as its devices sink or float.
But there at least one analyst believes that much. Maynard Um, Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in a study notes: “In considering the sale of assets, we believe BBRY have the greatest value in all though it may be of interest for different parts of the business – the OS for the automotive market or smartphones, the infrastructure for security, intellectual property, the subscriber base of the company, and other “
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5 – Do nothing
As the news yesterday, “it is not certain” that exploratory process will result in any transaction whatsoever. “
It is possible that after considering all options, BlackBerry decides to continue his journey alone. She still has a strong brand, a reasonable basis for corporate clients and some attractive technologies -. Lightened a BlackBerry might be able to find its place in the mobile ecosystem
But as our colleague Larry Dignan notes, it will be difficult for BlackBerry that it conducts its business as usual throughout this process, and its customers as its teams are worried and in limbo. The sooner the uncertainty will be removed – if exercised – the better
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Note: This article was originally published on ZDNet.com, where you can find it in the original version
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