Despite a number of parties showing interest in various parts of the company over the past weeks and months, Reuters reports that the BlackBerry board remains opposed to breaking up the company. According to unnamed sources, the board felt and continues to feel that such a move is not “currently in its best interests.”
This belief reportedly led to the company closing the door on a number of potential bids from companies that included Microsoft and Apple among others. Both had been interested in the company’s intellectual property and patents. Such offers were rejected by the board as “a break-up did not serve the interest of all stakeholders, which include employees, customers and suppliers in addition to shareholders.”
The report goes on to lend credence to rumours that BlackBerry held talks with a wide variety of companies including Cisco Systems Inc, Google and China’s Lenovo.
Concerns over any deal that would see BlackBerry broken up include liabilities over supplier commitments, loss of asset value given that they are so intertwined within the company, and long review periods over any deal.
On Monday, Fairfax and BlackBerry announced a deal that would see the company receive an injection of US$1 billion in exchange for convertible debentures that could later be converted into common shares of BlackBerry at a price of US$10.00 per common share.
The report also makes clear that the decision not to break up BlackBerry at this time does not preclude that it could still happen at some point in the future.
Source : Reuters