Is one of the people who helped to launch BlackBerry trying to take back the company? That"s the latest rumor that is surrounding the smartphone maker, which announced late on Friday it will cut 40 percent of its workforce and getting out of the consumer business.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, claims that BlackBerry co-founder and former co-CEO Mike Lazaridis has been approaching private equity firms to see if they could help with a possible bid to take back the company. The story claims that Lazaridis has approached both the Blackstone Group and the Carlyle Group, but the sources claims that the discussions on a BlackBerry bid are still early and might not lead to anything.
Lazaridis, along with Jim Balsillie, founded BlackBerry back when it was called Research in Motion and released their first device in 1999. Their BlackBerry smartphones were widely used by businesses in the 2000s. However, the two men were asked to leave as co-CEOs early in 2013 as sales of BlackBerry phones plummeted thanks to competition from Apple and the many Android and Windows Phone device makers. Unfortunately, it would appear that the company has not been able to stop the hemorrhaging under its current CEO, Thorsten Heins.
Source: Wall Street Journal | Image via BlackBerry