On Oct. 5, BlackBerry Ltd.’s stock price has fallen close to the embattled company’s liquidation value, shares in the Canadian technology company slipped 4 cents to close at $7.69 (U.S.). That’s just pennies higher than what Veritas calculates to be BlackBerry’s liquidation value of $7.59 a share on Nasdaq.
Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., the biggest shareholder of BlackBerry, achieved a $4.9 billion agreement with BlackBerry Ltd. Looking back to 2007, when Apple launched iPhone for the time, there was no sign of concern about the iPhone’s potential as a BlackBerry killer because BlackBerry has millions of subscribers, and later, even the American president Obama had recommended BlackBerry phones. But this action did not save BlackBerry.
The biggest reason of the falling of BlackBerry is that it does not think for the customers, it did not make their products more innovative and humane. Also, it did not open the market in China and India, which accelerate the death of BlackBerry. Here are some examples from the Globe and Mail:
- Shortly after the release of the first iPhone, Verizon asked BlackBerry to create a touchscreen “iPhone killer.” But the result was a flop, so Verizon turned to Motorola and Google instead.
- In 2012, one-time co-CEO Jim Balsillie quit the board and cut all ties to BlackBerry in protest after his plan to shift focus to instant-messaging software, which had been opposed by founder Mike Lazaridis, was killed by current CEO Thorsten Heins.
- Mr. Lazaridis opposed the launch plan for the BlackBerry 10 phones and argued strongly in favour of emphasizing keyboard devices. But Mr. Heins and his executives did not take the advice and launched the touchscreen Z10, with disastrous results
Reference:
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=all
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/blackberry-falls-near-liquidation-value-says-report/article14715711/