After the gargantuan Facebook-WhatsApp deal, every messaging app worth its weight is looking to sell. And BlackBerry is at the precipice of a cash flow shortage, which is why there is a lot of interest in the fact that BBM, BlackBerry’s ace messaging service might be looking too sell. Till now, this was pure conjecture, but now BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen has confirmed that BlackBerry might sell BBM, if offered the right price.
“Anything to help our shareholders I need to take a very serious look at. The potential is going to be huge, until we get to the point that we can showcase that potential it is a bit too early to think about getting our $19bn.”, said Chen.
Given that BlackBerry failed to secure even $4.7-billion for the sale of the whole company, $19 Billion is definitely a far-fetched pitch. While BlackBerry might be sinking, BBM is still pulling its weight, even though its 85 million users are nowhere near WhatsApp 450 million users.
The way the device division is sinking is evident from Chen’s parting words,”We have 80,000 customers around the world, we just need them to buy more stuff.” 80,000? Samsung just stated at the MWC 2014 event that it sold 200 million Galaxy S series phones.
