Samsung talks to BlackBerry about $7.5B buyout | Hacker News Reader

Samsung talks to BlackBerry about $7.5B buyout

reuters.com

14 pointspratiksaha8 comments

Given both Samsung [1] and BlackBerry [2] have denied this it sounds more like market manipulation to me.

[1] http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/14/7549547/samsung-no-plans-t...

[2] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-14/blackberry-climbs-o...

After the iPhone launched in 2007 BlackBerry had years to respond and they totally failed to. If they had just admitted defeat as late as 2010 the company could have been sold for tens of billions (I assume).

I agree BlackBerry completely dropped the ball in responding to iPhone - but how would a company admitting defeat be sold for tens of billions?

They're only worth that much if they're a viable contender in the phone/mobile wars - without continued products they're worth about as much as their patent portfolio, which is substantial but not that much.

Having reluctantly been convinced to try the BlackBerry passport recently I have to say I'm very impressed with the work BB is doing right now. The new OS is fast and snappy in a way only iOS can match, and even the most recent Androids can't dream of. They are innovating in both UX and typing in interesting (and IMO mostly successful) ways - I'm convinced that if it weren't for the stigma of sitting on their asses doing nothing for years about the smartphone revolution that these phones would be selling better than they are.

At this point the associative value of BlackBerry to quality - in the eyes of consumers anyways - may in fact be negative.

He did say 2010.. so let's look at 2010: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-16/rim-beats-revenue-p...

Q3 2010: 40% revenue growth to $5.5B Their share declined from #1 (20% marketshare) to #2 (15% behind apple at 17%)

Fast forward a bit: http://www.infoworld.com/article/2626010/smartphones/rim-pos...

Q2 2011: 12 million units sold, more than apple (8.4m) and nearly as many as all android units combined (14.7m)

Blackberry didn't die the moment the iphone was announced. They were in the fight for several years, and it wasn't entirely clear they would lose.

At the end of 2010, they still had a $30B market cap: http://ycharts.com/companies/BBRY/market_cap

It would be interesting to see what strategy SS would take with the patent trove. I'm sure it's not about the contracts with the few gov'ts which insist on having a blatant gateway for comms interception or the few lucrative stodgy corps who favor BB.

Who would SS go after with this trove, and if they did, do the others hit back with theirs?

Already submitted and shot down: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8889348

I think this would be a waste of money, does Samsung really have $7,500,000,000 burning a hole in their pocket?

With a market cap of $185B, sure. Does it probably need it, even for patents, market share or other reasons, probably not.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com