Burdened Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry is considering a buy out or enter a possible joint venture, strategic partnership or alliance as it continues to count its woes.The firm has already formed a special committee to review the firm’s future. The firm’s announcement follows a Reuters report that its was going private.
The special committee is chaired by Timothy Dattels and comprise of board members Barbara Stymiest, Thorsten Heins, Richard Lynch and Bert Nordberg.
Another member of the board, Prem Watsa, CEO of Fairfax Financial, BlackBerry’s largest shareholder, said he will be resigning from the board during the strategic review but will remain “a strong supporter of the company, the board and management” of BlackBerry and wont be selling its shares.According to Dattels, the board chairman, the strategic review is to help BlackBerry realize its full technology value especially the latest version of the smartphone operating system and look into the “evolving industry and competitive landscape”.
With just 3 percent of the global smartphone market BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins believes the firm still has a future and is “pleased with the progress” it has made. He added the firm will continue to focus on cutting costs, driving the uptake of BlackBerry 10 smartphones, expand BlackBerry Messenger to other mobile platforms among others.