Interested in BlackBerry might want to split the company - Yahoo! Finance

NEW YORK, 16 (Reuters / EP)

A handful of potential suitors, including private firms, are interested in BlackBerry, but early indications suggest that the interest is weak and not by the entire company as a whole, they said several sources familiar with the matter.

Private firms are mainly interested in business and BlackBerry operating system and patents related to your keyboard, two of the sources said.

However, one possibility is that a Canadian pension fund to join an investor to buy the entire company, which currently has a value of slightly more than 5.000 million (3.743 million euros), said one of the sources.

BlackBerry’s largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings, has approached several large Canadian investment funds to reach an agreement that will allow the Canadian manufacturer of smartphones to become a private firm, Reuters reported last week .

In recent days, a few private firms have signed confidentiality agreements or accepted meetings with the company to have access to their books of accounts, sources said, adding that the sales process would begin within weeks. Meanwhile, BlackBerry declined to comment.

Industry sources have said that several of the largest private firms and some of the Asian hardware manufacturers decided not to go for BlackBerry. However, sources added that certain assets of the Company to be of interest to buyers.

According to analysts, the BlackBerry assets include a service despite having incurred is well considered and supported in your messaging system. Its value would be between 3,000 and 4,500 million dollars (2.246 and 3.369 million euros).

there are the patents, which could be worth between 2,000 and 3,000 million dollars (1,497 euros and 2.246 million), and 3.100 million (2.321 million euros) in cash and investments.

Even with a conservative estimate, this is more than the 5,400 million market value of the company. Analysts said that smartphones bearing his name have a low or zero value, and could cost 2,000 million dollars to close the unit that manufactures them.