BlackBerry reassures customers with new campaign
"You can continue to count on BlackBerry," says an open letter to customers from the ailing Canadian smartphone manufacturer that appeared in Tuesday's Washington Post and other news outlets.
"How do we know? We have substantial cash on hand and a balance sheet that is debt free."
The letter points out that the Canadian-based group is restructuring with a goal to cut its expenses by 50% in order to run what it calls "an efficient, customer-oriented organisation".
"These are challenging times for us and we don't under-estimate the situation or ignore the challenges," the letter continues. "We are making the difficult changes necessary to strengthen BlackBerry."
Canada's Globe and Mail, another of the newspapers that published the letter, quoted BlackBerry regional managing director Andrew MacLeod as saying the campaign seeks to reinforce the company's viability and competitiveness.
Laying out the facts
"We wanted to get the facts of the situation out there," he told the Canadian daily. "We have strong assets and our ability to continue to fight and compete in this market remains very strong."
BlackBerry is hoping to sell parts of the company other "strategic options."
The company signed a letter of intent for a US$4.7bn buyout by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, but also left the door open to other offers.
Last week, BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis indicated in a regulatory filing that he has boosted his stake in firm with the intention of making an acquisition bid.
The private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which specialises in distressed companies, has also expressed interest in making a bid for BlackBerry.
Some analysts have said however that BlackBerry has fallen so far behind Apple and manufacturers using the Google Android operating system that its only hope is a breakup, which could salvage its software and services operations.
In January, BlackBerry unveiled a new corporate name and a new platform as it sought to regain momentum, but its most recent numbers suggest this has been a spectacular failure.
BlackBerry still has some 70m subscribers worldwide, but most of these are using older handsets, with the newer devices on the BlackBerry 10 platform failing to gain traction.
Last month, the company announced it was laying off 4,500 staff - or one third of its global workforce - after losing US$965m in its last quarter as sales plummeted.
But BlackBerry had about US$2.6bn in cash at the end of its past quarter.
Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge
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