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BlackBerry says to explore strategic alternatives

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Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry has arranged a committee to explore strategic choices, together with joint ventures, partnerships, or a sale of the company, Blackberry said on Monday Univers Inform.

Former Goldman Sachs executive Timothy Dattels, a BlackBerry board member, will chair the new committee to embody Blackberry Chief government Thorsten Heins.

“Given the significance and potential of our technology, and the evolving industry and aggressive landscape, we believe that now is the proper time to discover strategic possible choices,” Dattels stated in a commentary.

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BlackBerry pioneered on-your-hip e-mail with its first smart telephones and electronic mail pagers. Nevertheless, it has struggled to compete in opposition to the likes of Apple Inc and opposition to telephones using Google Inc’s Android working system. Its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones have failed to realize traction in a aggressive market.

Reuters ultimately quoted sources familiar with the situation as saying BlackBerry was once warming up to the potential of going non-public. The sources mentioned Heins and the corporate’s board were an increasing number of coming around to the concept taking BlackBerry personal would give them respiratory room to fix the corporate’s issues out of the general public eye.

Dattels is a senior accomplice at the non-public fairness agency TPG Capital and a former high investment banker at Goldman Sachs. His appointment to BlackBerry’s board ultimate 12 months sparked a flurry of the hypothesis that the company might imagine a leveraged buyout or going private.

Dattels’ nomination to the board got here in June 2012, shortly after BlackBerry hired JPMorgan and RBC Capital Markets to lend a hand it evaluation strategies, including a conceivable overhaul of its industry variation, in addition to other strikes, akin to increasing the BlackBerry platform through partnerships and licensing offers.

Fairfax monetary Chairman and Chief executive Prem Watsa stated on Monday that he would resign from the BlackBerry board due to doable conflicts of the hobby. Watsa stated Fairfax has “no current intention” of marketing its Blackberry shares.