Qualcomm joins race to buy Blackberry in conjunction with co-founders and Cerberus

Blackberry Headquarters

The search for Blackberry’s buyer continues and in addition to the current list of suitors that include co-founders  Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, Lenovo, Fairfax Holdings and most recently Facebook, there are two more big names: Cerberus and Qualcomm.

Qualcomm and Cerberus are said to be in talks with the two co-founders to fund a serious bid that will see them takeover the troubled Canadian company. Qualcomm has massive cash reserves and is capable of helping Cerberus and the two co-founders outbid Fairfax Holdings which has so far been seen as the leading contender when the bids close this coming Monday.

Qualcomm supplies the chips used in Blackberry smartphones and is said to be motivated by the need to keep a customer like Blackberry afloat while at the same having access to the Canadian company’s huge patent portfolio. Cerberus Capital on the other hand, a private investment firm, is like a guardian angel of troubled companies since it has a history of coming to the rescue of companies that are at the risk of going under and injecting some new lease of life after an acquisition of course while furthering its business interests.

Currently Blackberry’s share of the smartphone market stands at a paltry 2%, a pale shadow of the double digit numbers that it enjoyed a few years ago thanks to its slow response to the Apple iPhone and subsequent new generation devices and apps.

Source: WSJ




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