BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has apparently found another bidder in the form of former Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO John Sculley who is reportedly interested in the Canadian smartphone maker, reports The Globe and Mail.
Sculley sees value in BlackBerry
Sculley did not directly comment on the news, saying, “The only thing I would say is, I think there’s a lot of future value in Blackberry… but without experienced people who have run this type of business, and without a strategic plan, it would be really challenging.”
A BlackBerry spokeswoman said in an e-mail to Reuters that the company will reserve its comments until it reaches a specific deal or finishes the process.
Sculley a BlackBerry fan
Once a shining star in the smartphone market, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has fallen on hard times in recent years, losing ground to both Apple and Google’s Android system.
A few months earlier, as reported by Bloomberg, Sculley voiced the opinion that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) should stop making hardware though he himself has been a BlackBerry fan and user for the long time. Sculley noted that BB10 was a well-designed OS, but the company was losing traction due to its strategy. He said that BlackBerry can retain its lost share if they drop hardware and focus on secure messaging. He also believed that BlackBerry can achieve similar stature to that of BMW in the automotive field.
Other bidders
BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) was first offered a purchase bid from a Fairfax Financials-led consortium for $4.7 billion. However, as per the agreement, BlackBerry is open to receive other offers from potential companies, which may include Lenovo, Google, Samsung and Cisco along with Asian companies like LG and Samsung.
Earlier this week, news broke out that private equity firm Coller Capital is also mulling a bid on BlackBerry’s patent portfolio. However, the firm denied these reports, stating that it is neither interested in acquiring a stake in BlackBerry Intellectual property pool, nor in financing any bidder.
Most of the bidders are keenly interested in BlackBerry’s intellectual property portfolio, which is expected to have a value of $1.6 billion, but the value largely depends upon the number of patents that the company has licensed out to others.
In the pre-market trading at 8:43AM EDT, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) stocks were up 0.74% to $8.21.
