This morning Digitimes reports that several companies have once again taken interest in acquiring BlackBerry after the company exceeded investors' profit estimates for the previous quarter. The list of supposedly interested companies includes several big names including Microsoft, Lenovo, Huawei, and Xiaomi. They state that Microsoft, and presumably the other interested parties, have commissioned several investment firms to begin evaluating BlackBerry for potential acquisition.
To make things a bit more plausible, just last Friday BlackBerry's stock jumped 3% on speculation that Microsoft was evaluating a potential purchase of the company. Like Digitimes, the financial blog Betaville also reported that Microsoft has hired investment bankers to begin evaluation and names Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank as the facilitating parties.
Betaville goes on to stress that this is only an evaluation and it is very possible that Microsoft will never approach BlackBerry with an offer. The whole thing may seem unlikely, but Betaville has established a decent record breaking news on mergers talks, such as the Carphone Warehouse - Dixon merger that happened last year.
Microsoft has been on quite a roll in the acquisitions department lately. Just last year they purchased Nokia's Devices Division for $7.17 billion and acquired a massive patent library with it. The specifics of Microsoft's interest in Blackberry is not known, but one could speculate that Microsoft is after Blackberry's numerous mobile and IoV (Internet of Vehicles) patents, as well as BlackBerry's expertise in regards to mobile solutions for enterprise.
Take this rumor with a pinch of salt as it is not certain Microsoft will even pursue a bid for BlackBerry. With Blackberry finally turning a profit after an aggressive move to restructure, they may be confident they can make it on their own with continued success and focus in the connected vehicle and enterprise spaces.
Regardless of the outcome, one can't help but imagine and speculate what Microsoft's mobile future would be like if they did decide to purchase BlackBerry. BlackBerry devices running Windows 10 and Windows Mobile devices wrapped in leather and carbon fiber immediately come to mind, but for now it looks like these images will continue to exist only in our dreams.
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