Shares of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) surged as much as 11 percent at the NASDAQ Monday after the company announced that it would consider strategic options. Those options include going private or even being bought out, and many analysts believe either possibility is a likely scenario.
Of course there are plenty of skeptics who don’t think anyone is interested in buying the struggling Canadian company, although it does have a valuable patent portfolio. But which companies could possibly be interested in BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)? Mashable contributor Todd Wasserman considers the possibilities.
Chinese companies interested in BlackBerry?
He reminds us that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) saved Motorola two years ago. In fact, the new Motorola has just put out the first handset under Google’s oversight. Of course it’s unlikely that Google would be interested in a second handset maker, and also there have been a few bumps in the road with its Motorola acquisition. But other tech companies might be interested.
Wasserman spoke with Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston, who said Chinese companies in particular might want to bring the BlackBerry brand over to their native markets. Specifically, Mawston named Lenovo Group Ltd. (PINK:LNVGY) (HKG:0992), ZTE Corp. (HKG:763) (SHE:000063) and Huawei Corp. as possibilities.
U.S. companies might also want BlackBerry
Two other companies that were named were Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Cisco has plenty of cash, and BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) could fill a problem area for the company. Currently it partners with Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOK1V) (HEL:NOK1V) for mobile offerings.
Microsoft might be interested in BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) as well, although that might only be as a sort of Trojan horse. The company could kill the brand off to its Windows Phone partnership with Nokia a boost.
Unlikely suitors for BlackBerry
One company that’s unlikely to plop down the $10 billion BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is likely to be worth is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). While it’s true that the company’s mobile mail still isn’t great, it’s unlikely that an upgrade for that system is worth $10 billion. Also Apple tends to buy smaller companies and is pushing more towards cloud services right now. But with its massive facilities already in place, it likely has little use for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
And then there’s Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930), another company with plenty of cash to back up an offer for BlackBerry, although the Korean company already denied that it was interested in buying BlackBerry before.
