Apple should takeover Blackberry, here is why...

[scaredpoet]

Originally Posted by rMBP13

RIM's market cap is only less than $7-billion, just by offering 50% premium to its current market cap, RIM shareholders will approve the takeover for sure... Apple in the other hand have $137b on hand

That's no reason to buy them. Apple would be throwing $7 billion into a moneypit. They'd be acquiring a userbase that definitely doesn't want to be part of Apple's ecosystem (they would've converted by now if they did); two Operating System generations that are completely incompatible with each other, let alone iOS; a huge liability in BIS and BES which are basically outmoded bloatware at this point. Oh yeah, and two incompatible messaging systems.

[blueroom]

All the big phone companies will go at BB's patent portfolio like hungry wolves.

[scaredpoet]

Originally Posted by macophile101

I would like to see Blackberry and Apple in a limited partnership. Developing maps together, optimizing the enterprise security of both systems and sharing patents to help defend themselves against the people that are trying to sell us things and invade our privacy.

Where would Apple get anything to benefit them in those aspects you mention? Maybe you could argue the enterprise security if you insist on thinking that Blackberry's infrastructure is superior, but you already said you trust Apple and Blackberry equally with your info, so the net gain would be zero then.

Blackberry isn't developing anything in terms of maps, so no dice there. They seem to be using Google, actually, and I'm pretty sure Apple's already sunk too much money in its own maps platform, for better or worse, to go crawling back to Google.

And patents. Honestly given how desperate Blackberry is to monetize right now, I'm pretty sure if they had a patent goldmine, they would've turned patent troll by now and sued the pants off everybody. They would've slapped injunctions on everyone and released BB OS 10 as the one platform that has all the features that everyone else is court-ordered not to have. But that hasn't happened. Instead, the history has been by and large that Blackberry is on the receiving end of lawsuits way more often than it is on the giving end.

Buying Blackberry is just a solution in search of a problem... and buying it realistically will only cause more problems than the zero it solves.

[rMBP13]

I hope for a QWERTY iPhone targeting the professional community

[sonofjay]

Apple is about the "user experience".

So IF Apple wanted to release a phone with a physical keyboard they'd make sure it was done to Apple's high standard of "done right" and with the user experience in mind.

So they wouldn't need to buy Blackberry.

[Bahroo]

Originally Posted by jav6454

No. The iPhone came about as an idea to get rid of physical keyboards. Going back on that is a idiotic decision at best.

Exactly

[rMBP13]

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1256...buy-blackberry

Whenever discussion turns to what Apple (AAPL) should do with its ever-growing cash pile, acquisitions tend to be mentioned, but largely dismissed in terms of impact. The argument seems to go as follows:
Small acquisitions such as Siri or the Polar Rose (facial recognition) can be useful, and do happen regularly, but neither make a material dent in Apple's cash reserves nor represent game-changing moves. They simply represent ways for Apple to fast-track useful technologies. Apple has been picking those up at the rate of one every quarter or so. Even something as notable as high-end German TV maker Loewe AG (LOEEF.OB) (market cap, $55 million, rumored last month) essentially falls into this category.
Substantial to very substantial acquisitions, such as Netflix (NFLX) (10billion) or even Comcast (CMCSA) (109 billion) would turn the company in a whole new direction, an unlikely move for a company that has benefited from focus.
BlackBerry (BBRY), however, now seems to me to be a strong, logical candidate.

It is far from massive. Current market cap is $6.9 billion, and there is close to $2 billion in cash, so it could probably be acquired for $7-8 billion net.
Apple under Steve Jobs famously shunned the corporate market, where BlackBerry still retains substantial market share because of its reliability and robust security.
Many corporate users carry a BlackBerry for business, but an iPhone or Android phone for private use, for fun, and for access to the wide range of apps that the BlackBerry store is never going to match. Most would rather carry only one phone, and a unit that combined BlackBerry security, email access, and messaging (not to mention the little red light) with Apple's design, and iPhone Apps would have a huge attraction.
BlackBerry's tight integration of hardware, software, and back-end has close similarities with Apple, as does the quality over rush-to-market approach.

Would Apple shareholders be sellers?
Beleaguered Apple shareholders have recently received some relief from the better-than-feared response to the BlackBerry 10 range, but with analysts looking at losses in each of the next two years upside must now be limited. Had Windows 8 phones been a total flop BlackBerry would have had more room to maneuver, but that escape route is closed, at least for the time being.
The chart below tells the story. Two years ago there were four viable operating systems in the market: Android, iOS, Symbian (included in "Others" in the chart) and BlackBerry each had more than 10%. Now Android and iOS have over 90% of the market between them. Microsoft (MSFT) is putting its non-inconsiderable resources behind Windows 8, leaving very little space for BlackBerry.
A move on BlackBerry would signal that Apple really is embracing the corporate market, and combined with a deal with China Mobile (CHL), very likely for reasons I discussed here, could be a major catalyst in turning around the share price.

[bushman4]

Blackberry is going to be around for a while. With their 2 new models coming out soon they have entered the new generation. How far they will take it remains to be seen.