BlackBerry has had a rough couple of years. But the prospect of a deal for its messaging service, on the heels of Facebook’s blockbuster takeover of WhatsApp, has helped buoy the ailing smartphone maker’s fortunes.
On Tuesday, the company’s chief executive hinted that a sale or spinoff may happen, though not quite yet.
“Running a public company, anything to help our shareholders I need to take a very serious look at,†the executive, John S. Chen, told Bloomberg Television in an interview on Tuesday.
The statement was clearly a placeholder â€" Mr. Chen added that “it is a bit too early to think about getting our $19 billion†â€" but the prospect of a giant payout is something clearly weighing on his mind. Even as BlackBerry’s devices have fallen out of fashion, overtaken by the iPhone and Google’s army of Android phones, its messaging service has been held up as one of the few bright spots in company’s portfolio.
Even with the rise of messaging services like WhatsApp, BlackBerry Messenger (or BBM to aficionados) has held on to its share of users, some 85 million by Mr. Chen’s reckoning. That’s far from the 450 million users that WhatsApp claims, but BlackBerry has contended that its offering is fast, secure and more feature-filled than competitors’.
Shareholders clearly have hopes that a sale of BBM will eventually come. BlackBerry’s stock was up 7.4 percent by midday on Tuesday, at $10.56, and has leaped 17 percent since the WhatsApp deal was announced last week.
But investors may want to temper their expectations. The $16 billion that Facebook paid for WhatsApp, which doesn’t include restricted stock units that will vest over time, comes out to about $35 per user. For BlackBerry, a similar payout would value its service at close to $3 billion.
Going with the full $19 billion purchase price values WhatsApp at about $42 per user. Applying that to BBM’s user base would translate to $3.6 billion.
BlackBerry is working to expand that potential price tag by increasing its service’s numbers, however. Over the past few months, the company has even taken the once-unthinkable step of opening up its crown jewel to users of other smartphones. BBM has been available for iOS and Android since late last year, and will soon be headed to Windows Phone as well.
“The potential is going to be huge,†Mr. Chen told Bloomberg.
