Breaking: BlackBerry considering sale as 'strategic alternative'

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

After some murmurings last week that Waterloo, ON based BlackBerry was looking to go private in order to better restructure the company as it struggles to regain its foothold in mobile smartphone market it once pioneered, news today of more aggressive measures including the sale of the company are being explored.

BlackBerry says its board has launched a formal review of "strategic alternatives" to fix the ailing company and among these alternatives is the sale as a whole or in part of the company. The end result of the review could be BlackBerry forming joint ventures, strategic partnerships or a sale of BlackBerry. In other words, all offers are on the table.

BlackBerry attempted to make a comeback this year with the year-late launch of its BlackBerry OS 10 devices and operating systemr. The company launched three new smartphones but sales haven't been stellar and the company continues to struggle in a highly competitive mobile economy ruled by Apple and Samsung.

“As the Special Committee focuses on exploring alternatives, we will be continuing with our strategy of reducing cost, driving efficiency and accelerating the deployment of BES 10, as well as driving adoption of BlackBerry 10 smartphones, launching the multi-platform BBM social messaging service, and pursuing mobile computing opportunities by leveraging the secure and reliable BlackBerry Global Data Network,” BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said in a statement.

For Canadians, this news is painfully reminiscent of what happened to Nortel Networks right before that company folded.  BlackBerry, then known as Research In Motion, was the most valuable stock in the Toronto Stock Exchange. Below is the full press release from BlackBerry

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Canada's Keek social video service passes 58 million user mark

It may not be as popular as Instagram or even Vine, but the Canadian-created social video sharing service seems comitted to compete against those leading apps. The company is reportedly raising $100 million for financing to better compete with more widely popular apps and services. Keek allows users to record and post 36-second long videos called "Keeks" from smartphones as well as computer connected webcams. Followers can then comment and like the videos. You know, sort of like YouTube.

Founded in 2011, Keek's aggressive moves could make it a big story in Canadian app innovation. Keek is available on browsers, Android, iOS, Windows Phone and Blackberry.

Source: Venturebeat

Should BlackBerry go private?

It has been a whirlwind year so far for BlackBerry. The Canadian smartphone and messaging pioneer set off to get back in the mobile game with a brand new OS and the types of devices that users have been clamouring for while killing off others that showed no future.

Playing catch up with competing ecosystems, BlackBerry has managed to release three new handsets in various markets and is likely going to push out at least one more new flagship device before the year is over. Now there are murmurings that the company is looking to go private. A report from Reuters states that Thorsten Heins and Co. are debating the merits of going private and that such a move would "give them breathing room to fix its problems out of the public eye," the report states.

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Android Device Manager now live! Track, ring or wipe your devices remotely!

Today is as good a day as any to try Android Device Manager from your web browser. The utility can be used to track, ring and if needed wipe a device remotely (in the event that it is stolen and not returnable). This is a powerful tool for any Android user. To wipe the device, you need to enable it from the smartphone end within Google Play Services. 

Source: Android Police