This article is in response to Danny Jung’s article “Lenovo + Blackberry.” Danny talks about Lenovo’s interest in buying out Blackberry, revealing that Lenovo is willing to bid $15 a share for the Canadian company’s stock. He feels as though the sale of blackberry would be a very smart move by blackberry’s C.E.O thus, Lenovo has already established themselves as a successful competitor in the mobile and desktop device industry. He believes the company would sell more Blackberry products than ever before and Blackberry’s reputation would in turn rise for the better.
Personally, I could not agree more with what Danny has mentioned in this article response. Similarly, I feel as though the sale of blackberry is a no brainer. At this point in time, Blackberry has lost the majority of its monetary value. Six years ago Blackberry’s stock peaked at just over $140 /share. Currently, Blackberry’s stock price is trading at roughly $10.50/share. The best thing the CEO can do now is simply sell the company for parts. Unfortunately, Blackberry does not appear to be rebounding anytime soon. The company has lost a huge amount of its former market share, as it struggles to keep up with the industry leaders; Apple and Microsoft. If Blackberry doesn’t want to die a slow and painful death, they should make the sale to Lenovo. Lenovo could potentially enhance blackberry’s current technology and therefore increase the sale of Blackberry products, thus keeping Blackberry products on the market.
On a side note, one thing to keep in mind is that nearly 600,000 Blackberry smartphones are currently owned and issued by the U.S national defense department. Not to mention, Barack Obama, the president of the United States is also an active Blackberry user. There is no doubt that sale of Blackberry to a foreign entity would need to overcome tremendous barriers as the Canadian government ultimately must determine whether or not the sale is beneficial to Canada’s economy, and whether or not it is a risk to national security. When it’s all said and done, Lenovo’s acquisition of Blackberry could be a very difficult one, and there’s much reason to believe that Lenovo will be forced to pay a premium if they wish to have any hope in acquiring the Canadian smartphone company.
Source of article: https://blogs.ubc.ca/djung/2014/11/04/lenovoblackberry/