Blackberry the Canadian mobile phone manufacturer has entered into a deal in principle to be bought by a consortium that is led by Fairfax Financial http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24214301.
After the recent announcement of job losses, it’s clear Blackberry’s trouble are bubbling over. Although a buy out looks promising indicting there is faith the company can succeed and is worth shovelling in cash, it may be that what happens next will be a massive morph of the company as we know it.
The smartphone market only has so much room for the size of players that exist, you either take a much smaller slice of the pie or go niche. Recent announcements that the BBM (Blackberry Messenger) is being ported to other platforms is signs the company is diversifying. I believe this is what will happen if the bought out takes place, the company will be driven to change it’s model to make a profit to pay back the investment and this will only impact the handset side of the business.
This will only give a bit more room for the three big names that are left to fight over, as the scraps of Blackberry are tossed onto the giants feasting table.
[UPDATE 31.09.2013] It appears Gartner agree with me which upset Blackberry, glad my blog isn’t as read as Gartner’s!