While SAP may have confirmed that it will not make a bid for BlackBerry, another interesting player has stepped into this saga. According to The Wall Street Journal, BlackBerry executives met last week with Facebook to “gauge its interest in a potential bid.” The outcome of these meetings was not revealed.
As to what Facebook might want from a BlackBerry acquisition, there are a few possibilities. The first could be its patents which cover security network technology and smartphone component patents among others.
Facebook could also be interested in BlackBerry’s smartphones. Rumours that Facebook was thinking of building its own smartphone have been around for some time. Past attempts at partnerships have failed with the HTC First being the latest. BlackBerry might give it the leg up it needs to get into the market.
It could also be interested in enhancing its own messaging platform with BBM. With some 20 million new users in the last week alone, BBM now has 80 million users and a well established platform that Facebook could integrate into its own products.
If Facebook is genuinely interested, it may find itself competing against other parties. Cisco, Google along with Lenovo, RIM co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, former Apple CEO John Sculley have all been linked to a potential bid in recent weeks. BlackBerry also has potential US$4.7 billion deal with Fairfax Financial Holdings to take the company private.
It would appear that a lot of companies are at least taking a look at what BlackBerry or pieces of it could fit within their own portfolios. Whether those eventually become bids remains to be seen.
Source : The Wall Street Journal