A BlackBerry Q5 on display at the company's Annual and Special Meeting, in Waterloo. The phone was released in Canada on Tuesday. (Geoff Robins/The Canadian Press)
The BlackBerry Q5, the latest smartphone running the smartphone company's new operating system, went on sale in Canada on Tuesday amid speculation about the company's future and a further bump in its share price.
BlackBerry shares were up $1.09 or nearly 10 per cent at $12.22 on the Toronto Stock Exchange in late morning trade, and had been even higher earlier in the session.
The gain followed an announcement by the company that it was exploring "strategic alternatives" on Monday.
CIBC analyst Todd Coupland suggested BlackBerry could be worth as much as $20 per share in a takeover scenario.
He said likely buyers may be another mobile company such as Apple or Samsung, one looking to increase or grow in the smartphone market such as Amazon, Dell or HP, or a company looking at BBM as a social media tool, such as Facebook.
"Another real option would be an attempt to take Blackberry private," Coupland wrote.
"(Fairfax Financial chief executive) Prem Watsa who holds approximately 11 per cent of BlackBerry could very well be seriously considering joining a bid to take BlackBerry private. Private equity firms that could be involved include Silver Lake Partners and CPPIB, and there are very likely others."
Watsa resigned from the BlackBerry board on Monday due to potential conflicts of interest, suggesting the firm may be interested.
Watsa joined the board in early 2012 as part of attempts to revitalize BlackBerry as its previous long-time co-CEOs stepped aside and installed Thorsten Heins as chief executive.
Lazaridis involved in review
BlackBerry's strategic review will be headed by Timothy Dattels, who joined BlackBerry's board last year and is a senior partner at TPG Capital, one of the world's largest private equity firms.
BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis will also be involved, as he still owns 5.7 per cent of BlackBerry's outstanding shares. However, former co-chief executive Jim Balsillie — who, along with Lazaridis was instrumental in building BlackBerry — sold his stake in the company last year, according to regulator documents.
The BlackBerry Q5, a followup to the original Q10 keyboard model and the Z10 touch-screen model that were introduced earlier this year as part of an attempt to rejuvenate the company, has been on sale in other countries but not in Canada.
The Q5 phone was originally targeted at Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Latin America, but the company recently decided to add Canada to the list.
BlackBerry also announced Tuesday it plans another device running its old operating system — for Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
The first-round of Blackberry 10 phones, the Z10 and Q10, have struggled against the latest iPhone and Android devices. Sales failed to catch fire and delivered only lukewarm sales figures.
And, the Q5, which was launched last month, has been greeted with underwhelming reviews and sales figures anecdotally that fell short of expectations, though official data hasn't been released by the company.
SOURCE :CBC
FoR MoRe InFo PlEaSe ViSiT.....
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