Tag: sale

BlackBerry Creates “Special Committee”, Will Consider Sale

Looks like the rumours from last week were true about BlackBerry potentially going up for sale. The company has announced this morning that the Board of Directors have created a ‘Special Committee’ to “explore strategic alternatives” that could include ‘possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions.”

According to the press release the Special Committee will be chaired by Timothy Dattels, plus include Barbara Stymiest, Thorsten Heins, Richard Lynch and Bert Nordberg. Leading the “Exploration of Strategic Alternatives” process will be JP Morgan Securities as its financial advisor, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Torys LLP are serving legal advisors.

Timothy Dattels, Chairman of BlackBerry’s Special Committee of the Board, stated “Given the importance and strength of our technology, and the evolving industry and competitive landscape, we believe that now is the right time to explore strategic alternatives.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of BlackBerry investigating its options in an increasingly-competitive smartphone market — in early 2012, the company reportedly hired Goldman Sachs to evaluate its options, and last June the company was reportedly investigating the selloff of its handset business.

Of course, a lot has happened since last year — BlackBerry 10 finally launched in 2013, but so far the new OS hasn’t stopped the bleeding for the formerly-dominant company.

[Via]

August 12, 2013
Lenovo Interested In Buying RIM’s Hardware Division

RIM is about to release its latest BlackBerry 10 platform by next week. But even with this new development, the Canadian company is not off the hook when it comes to its market predicament. BlackBerry is a platform on the decline, and apart from BB10, RIM is thinking of ways to revitalize its business. Among the possibilities is licensing is operating system or even selling off its hardware division.

Lenovo is reportedly mulling over a purchase of RIM’s traditionally-unprofitable hardware division as it determines how best to move into the international smartphone and tablet market.

Lenovo is the world’s number two PC manufacturer, and although sales have been strong over the last few quarters, rocketing past Dell in market share, desktop and laptop sales are slowing in the wake of smartphones and tablet proliferation. Lenovo rose to be the number two smartphone maker in China in 2012, but it has a lot of work to do if it ever wants to be an international player.

Analysts speculate that even if BlackBerry 10 proves a success for the company — which, if early indications are a bellwether, it likely will — RIM may choose to sell its hardware business anyway, focusing on its network and software assets. A partnership with a company like Lenovo or even Samsung, which was also rumoured to be interested in acquiring RIM at one point, could push the Waterloo-based outfit back into the black.

On related news, RIM’s shares rose with the reports of Lenovo’s interest. The Toronto Stock Exchange-listed shares rose 3%. Still analysts say RIM is likely to wait until it launches BlackBerry 10 before seriously considering partnerships or asset sales.

[Mobile Syrup]

January 25, 2013
RIM looks to sell NewBay, other assets

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is looking to sell cloud services provider NewBay and some of the other minor assets it recently acquired, as part of a strategic review process, according to a source familiar with the matter.

RIM acquired NewBay, a provider of photo, video, and social-networking tools for smartphones and computers, in October 2011 for reportedly around $100 million, as it sought to roll out a new strategy to stem its steady decline.

RIM declined to comment on the sale report.

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, is a pioneer in the smartphone industry, but has struggled over the last couple of years, as its aging line-up of BlackBerry smartphones have not been able to compete against more-advanced devices like Apple Inc’s iPhone and a slew of other devices based on Google Inc’s Android software.

The acquisition of NewBay in Dublin, Ireland, was a huge part of the former RIM leadership’s plan to alter its course and boost service revenue by having carriers use its services for messaging, content delivery and analytics on all smartphones.

When RIM bought it in late 2011, NewBay had over 80 million subscribers. NewBay stores media on its own servers and delivers it to any Internet-connected device, including mobile phones, personal computers and tablets.

But in the face of mounting pressure RIM’s Co-Chief Executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resigned early this year. RIM’s new CEO Thorsten Heins has begun a strategic review process within the company and is focused on delivering a new line-up of devices that run on RIM’s new BB10 operating system, in the first-quarter of 2013.

Since taking the reins early in 2012, Heins has retained RBC Capital Markets and JPMorgan to explore options for RIM.

Its share price has fallen more than 60 percent over the course of the last year, as RIM has continued to hemorrhage market share to the likes of nimbler competitors like Apple and Samsung Electronics Co.

RIM’s shares closed more than 6 percent higher at $8.29 on Friday on the Nasdaq, after Bloomberg reported that tech giant International Business Machines Corp had at one point considered buying RIM’s enterprise division.

Source : Reuters

August 11, 2012
iG Offer : Get Motorola Xoom 32 GB 3g + Wifi at 24,999/- + Free Moto Cover and Screen Protector

Here you go, the latest iGyaan Offer for those with tablet fever. The mammoth Motorola Xoom which sells for upwards of 35 thousand rupees can be your for a mere 24,999/-. Whats more you get the original Motorola cover (Worth Rs. 3499) and Screen protector ( Worth Rs. 1200) absolutely free.

Don’t Miss out on this deal for exclusive iGyaan Viewers.

Call 9810845666 or 9818455333.

Remember this offer is valid only in Delhi, Anywhere else in India Shipping charges will apply. Limited stock only.

Have fun tabbing!

January 13, 2012
RIM puts the Playbook on a massive sale 16, 32 and 64 GB versions all for US$ 299

Looks like RIM is following up in HP’s footsteps, and has decided to liquidate the Playbook all over the world. The US however seems to get the best deal, RIM’s official webstore is offering the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB model for $299, the pricing is quite strange especially since no one would buy the cheaper ones. Those who have the tablet can get access to the Android market in a few easy steps detailed by the team at Crackberry. It requires a rooted PlayBook, WinSCP, the latest version of Cyanogen Google apps.

In India the Playbook has been sold out at the lower pricing, with just an asking price of Rs. 13,500 for the 16GB, Rs. 15800 for the 32 GB and Rs. 24000 for the 64Gb versions. People are going gaga over the failed tablet simply because its priced right.

We will try getting our hands on a such device for a better review.

[RIM]

[CrackBerry]

January 4, 2012
WD gets go ahead to buy Hitachi’s HDD business

Western Digital had announced its plans to buy Hitachi’s (or Acquire) Hard Drive business for a total of 4.3 Billion US $. Regulators only approved the Western Digital deal after assurances that the company would sell off some its production assets, including a manufacturing plant, and transfer some intellectual property to the new unit being put on the auction block.

So as soon ad WD can sell off their existing plant, they will be ready to take over Hitachi’s units.

November 24, 2011
iPhone 4S now available Unlocked in the US, $649 and above

Apple has finally started selling unlocked iPhone 4S in the US, this is also the first ever officially Unlocked iPhone to be ever made available in the US. The prices 16GB model going for $649 (34,000 INR), a 32GB model for $749 (37,500 INR) and a 64GB variant for $849. (42,500 INR).

The Unlocked phones work worldwide and support all GSM carriers, are are essentially like the ones Bharat Unboxed for you lovely people.

November 12, 2011
Samsung Plays dirty games to stop iPhone 4S in Aussie Land – Sells Galaxy S2 for $2

Have a Hundred rupees ? You can now get a Samsung Galaxy S2 for 2 Dollars (Australian) if you are in Sydney. The line apparently stretches beyond the one at the Apple Store, the first 10 people in line at the store get the device at $2.

Customers queuing outside of Apple’s George Street store in Sydney waiting for Friday’s iPhone 4S launch have reportedly been approached by Samsung representatives, encouraging them to switch queues and stand in line at the Samsung store instead.

Unfortunately for Samsung, it doesn’t seem to be working on most, with student Tom Mosca noting:

There’s this guy who has come up to us trying to convince us to buy the Samsung Galaxy S II two days in a row now. He’s an idiot.

Oh the dirty Tricks Samsung!

October 12, 2011
Samsung may buy HP’s PC Business

Reports and rumors on the inter webs claim that Samsung is moving strong and hard in acquisition of HP’s PC business. A move of this nature will tie Samsung the boost it needs to be the number one PC maker in the world.

According to the reports Samsung may also outsource its own existing line , where as focusing on technologies that it may acquire from the HP Pc Business.

[Read]

August 24, 2011
Apple blocks sale of the Galaxy Tab in EU : Case in Germany

Apple has won a preliminary injunction to stop the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the whole of the European Union except for the Netherlands. A new ruling by a regional court in Dusseldorf, Germany has granted Cupertino a preliminary injunction, blocking the sale and advertising of the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Apple has a similar ongoing lawsuit in the Netherlands. Should Samsung continue to sell the tablet, the company could face fines of up to $350,000 for each violation. Apple also won the injection in Australia blocking the sale of the said tablet.

Samsung plans to appeal the injunctions, but the likely appeal will take about a month to be heard by the judge who granted the injunction.

August 10, 2011
Apple Planning to buy HULU – Bring it to the World

Looks like Apple is in talks to buy HULU, according to a report by Bloomberg. In June, Hulu announced that it had hired Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners to assist with a the sale of the company earlier reports stated that Yahoo! was interested in making a bid at that time.

Currently Hulu is available only in select countries. Should Apple buy it, we can expect a massive video service offering from Apple , that would easily take on the likes of Netflix, even make it available in less fortunate countries, like ours. (redundant sarcasm)

July 24, 2011
The Kindle – Your New Text Book

When we were in school and college, we often forgot our textbooks at home or in the hostel and we sat through class with no clue of what was going on. Enter the Kindle. Amazon has launched a new service called Textbook Rental, which lets you store all your textbooks and notes in the cloud.

Amazon’s new service, which was announced today, allows students to rent their textbooks for as much as 80% off the listed price. They can rent the textbooks for a month, a year or any duration in between with additional days being charged on a per-day basis. Not only will this service allow students to make killer savings, but it will also reduce the amount of stuff they need to carry to school.

This service, along with the Kindle app which is available on all major platforms including iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry, will allow students to read their textbooks and jotted notes on virtually any device. The kids today get all the cool stuff.

July 20, 2011
Is Apple Killing The iPod?

Apple’s iPod has been around for the last ten years. When it was launched it was a revolutionary product that defined an industry. We’re sure that the iPod will be around for some time but is the end in sight? According to an analysis by Fortune magazine, iPod sales hit their peak during the holiday season of 2008. Since then, sales have been pushing south at a steady pace.

Apple’s jumped from around 22.7 million iPods sold at the end of 2008 to an expected 8.39 million iPods sold within the third quarter of 2011. These numbers do include the bump in sales received during the holidays, but, when comparing sales with the previous year, there is a 7.2% drop from Q3 of 2010.

Apple has decided to concentrate its efforts in its smart phone and tablet sales. When you think about the features that are built into Apple’s product line, the decline in sales starts to make sense. The more of Apple’s user base that shifts to the iPad or the iPhone, the more its antiquated iPod line looks like a meager purchase. The only huge difference between an iPod and an iPhone for example is price and capacity. While music lovers can store many many more songs in their iPods, and pay less for it, they are giving up a huge number of features.

It costs less money to shift from a low capacity iPhone to a high capacity one, than it does to purchase an iPhone and an iPod. And this is not considering those people who have already bought an iPhone and an iPad both. Why would people want all three? We highly doubt that users who use an iPad and/or an iPhone will be wanting to add an iPod touch to their collection.

Apple’s expected to hit around 7.9 million in third quarter sales for the iPad 2, and around 18.3 million in iPhone sales.

July 18, 2011
The Apple App Store Crosses the 15 Billion Downloads Milestone

Apple has claimed that over 200 million devices running its mobile operating system, iOS, have been sold to people across 90 countries. With over 425,000 apps in its app store, the company claims that it has crossed the 15 billion app downloads milestone. Of these 425,000 apps, over 100,000 have been specifically optimized for the iPad.

These figures represent a considerable challenge for rivals like Hewlett Packard and Google who also offer online application storefronts. Of these competitors, the Android Marketplace possibly comes the closest to Apple’s App Store with hundreds of thousands of applications available to users on their mobile devices running Google’s Android OS. However, out of all the hundreds of thousands of apps available, a very tiny fraction have been optimized for tablets running Android which gives Apple’s iPad a huge advantage.

With the release of OSX “Lion”, Apple will be including a built in Mac-App store with the ability to download full screen applications for the companies line of Desktops and Laptops. This change shows how Apple’s advances in mobile software have affected its entire product line.

Apple’s soon to be released iOS5 will offer a huge number of improvements over its predecessor, some of which seem to be directly targeted towards its competition. The iMessage feature seems like a direct answer to RIM’s Blackberry Messenger service. Perhaps the most anticipated feature of iOS5 will be iCloud. The iCloud service allows users to keep all their devices and media in sync, over the cloud. It is also integrated with applications to allow them to push updates wirelessly. It remains to be seen how this update will affect the sale of Apple’s products as well as its competition.

July 8, 2011
How much would You pay for a Google+ Invite?

Do you wish that you were a part of Google’s new Social Network Google+? Well your not alone. A lot of people all over the world have the desire to test Google’s new offering and some of those people have seen an opportunity to make some money. Google+ is currently in the testing phase so Google has restricted access to the service.

While joining Google+ will be free, people who are already on the service have started selling invites on E-Bay. A quick search on E-Bay gives a number of results ranging from $0.99 an invite all the way to $99.99 for one.

The downside to a purchase is that you still won’t be able to join the Google+ service. Google announced that the interest in Google+ was so great that the company had decided to stop accepting new users. A Google spoksperson said that they will be accepting new users in periodically as the company readies for its big public debut.

July 6, 2011