Interest in BlackBerry appears to be heating up. Following recent reports that Lenovo and RIM co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin were considering BlackBerry bids comes word that former Apple CEO John Sculley could also be interested. The Globe and Mail has learned that Sculley’s bid would involve some Canadian partners.
Sculley is probably most famous for his stint as Apple’s CEO from 1983 to 1993. Sales jumped dramatically during his leadership but he is more famously remembered for his clashes with Steve Jobs. These eventually led to Jobs leaving Apple in 1985. Sculley was fired by Apple’s board in 1993 and Steve Jobs would eventually return to the company he founded.
In an interview today, Sculley said that “there’s a lot of future value in Blackberry” but that a turnaround would require “a strategic plan that was credible and could succeed… [and] an experienced team that would be able to implement that plan.”
Not surprisingly Sculley would not comment on the rumour but did say that “I’ve been a long-time BlackBerry fan and user.”
Other rumoured interested parties in parts or the whole company include Cisco, Google and SAP. BlackBerry also has an offer of the table from Fairfax Financial to take the company private for US$4.7 billion.
Source : The Globe and Mail