New Delhi: Once-profiting smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry is reportedly being targeted for acquisition after the company managed to achieve profits in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014.
As the company is underway a corporate restructure, some of the industry giants are speculated to be interested in its acquisition. According to a report on DigiTimes, Microsoft, Xiaomi, Huawei and Lenovo are said to be the potential investors.
This week BlackBerry announced job cuts worldwide as it looked at consolidating its software, hardware and applications business. The company is reallocating resources to capitalize on growth opportunities and achieve profitability across all its business segments.
If reports are to be believed, Microsoft has commissioned investment companies to evaluate the possibility of acquiring BlackBerry in a bid to enhance its competitiveness in the business mobile solution segment along with its patent portfolio in the connected-vehicles, mobile and communications sectors.
While Microsoft’s ambition at acquiring BlackBerry is in line with its recently shifted business focus to software products instead of hardware devices; the interest of the Chinese manufacturers is aimed at improving their presence in the US and European markets while expanding their platform products and patent portfolios.
Recently, BlackBerry CEO John Chen expressed his optimism for the company’s smartphone business and said that he will make it profitable again as there are a lot of important customers who need secure devices which only BlackBerry can provide.
Under his leadership about 18 months ago, BlackBerry has refocused toward enterprise and governments instead of normal consumers. However, bringing the sinking company back to life is going to be tough, especially when even China-based smartphone manufacturers are successfully wooing smartphone lovers worldwide and Chen believes coupling nice phones with a promise of security is a big piece of the puzzle.
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