BlackBerry’s strategic decision of selling itself off has definitely managed to generate a lot of curiosity and with multiple parties already interested in a takeover, ex-Apple CEO John Sculley is reportedly mulling over takeover of this ailing Canadian company.
According to unnamed sources cited by Globe and Mail Sculley, who is a long-time BlackBerry fan, is mulling over a takeover bid. Sculley hasn’t approved or denied the report, but has refrained from commenting on this completely. However, he did speak on the matter and claimed that BlackBerry has a lot of future, but without the right set of experienced people “who have run this type of business, and without a strategic plan,” BlackBerry’s future will be challenging.
Ex-Apple CEO, if he is indeed thinking of acquiring BlackBerry, will be in direct competition of Fairfax led consortium, Lenovo, Intel and BlackBerry’s ex-CEO Mike Lazaridis. Earlier there were reports that Samsung, LG, Google and even Cisco were mulling over a bid, but no concrete information has surfaced yet. BlackBerry has agreed to a $4.7 billion (£2.91bn) sale to the Fairfax led consortium; however, the Z10 maker is still open to bids up until November 4.
The $4.7bn valuation is definitely on the lower end of the spectrum as once the company was valued at over $73bn. Those familiar and aware about BlackBerry’s patent portfolio claim that its patents itself are worth $3bn.
Sculley is best known as the man who got Steve Jobs fired in 1985. Steve Jobs had got Sculley to join Apple in 1983, but their relations went sour as the ex-PepsiCo president wasn’t affimative of Jobs’ management style and the things got worse after Sculley learned that Jobs was trying to get him fired. The matter was presented before the board and directors sided Sculley and fired Jobs.
