BlackBerry’s last-ditch effort to stay relevant in the smartphone industry with its BlackBerry 10 devices has failed, and the company is now for sale. Investors led by FairFax Financial Holdings announced last month that they will be raising money for a $4.7 billion buyout of BlackBerry. This occurred just days before BlackBerry revealed a $965 million quarterly loss on revenue that was down nearly 50% from the previous quarter.
Though the buyout deal left BlackBerry open to other offers, market watchers remained skeptical that any other companies would step up to acquire the dying tech company. There could, however, be interest in BlackBerry’s patent portfolio, which could be worth billions on its own.
A Reuters report is now claiming that companies such as Cisco, Google, Intel, and SAP could be looking to buy BlackBerry. The report states that BlackBerry has solicited “expressions of interest” from possible buyers. The full lineup of potential buyers includes Korean tech companies such as LG and Samsung. In addition to the BlackBerry patents, the companies seem to have an interest in the company’s secure server network.
In the meantime, BlackBerry will continue to get itself into shape for a sale, laying off thousands and spending millions of its cash reserve to shore up its financials. The company spent upwards of $500 million in cash this past quarter, leaving it with only $2.6 billion in cash. According to the Reuters story, a Bernstein analyst recently predicted that BlackBerry will spend around $2 billion of its cash reserves during the next six quarters.