

Samsung talks to BlackBerry about $7.5B buyout - pratiksaha
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/15/us-blackberry-m-a-samsung-exclusive-idUSKBN0KN2FW20150115

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kondro
Given both Samsung [1] and BlackBerry [2] have denied this it sounds more like
market manipulation to me.

[1] [http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/14/7549547/samsung-no-
plans-t...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/14/7549547/samsung-no-plans-to-buy-
blackberry)

[2] [http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-14/blackberry-
climbs-o...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-14/blackberry-climbs-on-
report-samsung-made-acquisition-proposal.html)

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staunch
After the iPhone launched in 2007 BlackBerry had years to respond and they
totally failed to. If they had just admitted defeat as late as 2010 the
company could have been sold for tens of billions (I assume).

~~~
potatolicious
I agree BlackBerry completely dropped the ball in responding to iPhone - but
how would a company admitting defeat be sold for tens of billions?

They're only worth that much if they're a viable contender in the phone/mobile
wars - without continued products they're worth about as much as their patent
portfolio, which is substantial but not _that_ much.

Having reluctantly been convinced to try the BlackBerry passport recently I
have to say I'm _very_ impressed with the work BB is doing right now. The new
OS is fast and snappy in a way only iOS can match, and even the most recent
Androids can't dream of. They are innovating in both UX and typing in
interesting (and IMO mostly successful) ways - I'm convinced that if it
weren't for the stigma of sitting on their asses doing nothing for years about
the smartphone revolution that these phones would be selling better than they
are.

At this point the associative value of BlackBerry to quality - in the eyes of
consumers anyways - may in fact be negative.

~~~
rgbrenner
He did say 2010.. so let's look at 2010:
[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-16/rim-beats-
revenue-p...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-16/rim-beats-revenue-
profit-estimates-as-sales-of-blackberry-devices-climb.html)

Q3 2010: 40% revenue growth to $5.5B Their share declined from #1 (20%
marketshare) to #2 (15% behind apple at 17%)

Fast forward a bit: [http://www.infoworld.com/article/2626010/smartphones/rim-
pos...](http://www.infoworld.com/article/2626010/smartphones/rim-posts-
revenue-gains-on-blackberry-sales.html)

Q2 2011: 12 million units sold, more than apple (8.4m) and nearly as many as
all android units combined (14.7m)

Blackberry didn't die the moment the iphone was announced. They were in the
fight for several years, and it wasn't entirely clear they would lose.

At the end of 2010, they still had a $30B market cap:
[http://ycharts.com/companies/BBRY/market_cap](http://ycharts.com/companies/BBRY/market_cap)

------
mc32
It would be interesting to see what strategy SS would take with the patent
trove. I'm sure it's not about the contracts with the few gov'ts which insist
on having a blatant gateway for comms interception or the few lucrative stodgy
corps who favor BB.

Who would SS go after with this trove, and if they did, do the others hit back
with theirs?

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chrisbolt
Already submitted and shot down:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8889348](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8889348)

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programminggeek
I think this would be a waste of money, does Samsung really have
$7,500,000,000 burning a hole in their pocket?

~~~
kondro
With a market cap of $185B, sure. Does it probably need it, even for patents,
market share or other reasons, probably not.

