Former Apple CEO John Sculley is exploring an offer, in partnership with Canadian investors to take over BlackBerry, the beleaguered smartphone manufacturer from Canada. Sculley led Apple in the 80s, during which the company has strongly developed, but he is less is known for company’s results and more for divergences with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.
Jobs was fired by the board because of disagreements on company strategy, but later returned to Apple, where he launched the iPod, several Macs and iPhones that brought the American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California among the most valuable in the world. Steve Jobs died in 2011.
The former CEO of Apple declined to comment for The Globe and Mail the possible acquisition, but said he has been for a long time a fan and user of BlackBerry phones. “The only thing I would say is, I think there’s a lot of future value in Blackberry,” said Sculley.
The 74-year-old John Sculley was president and CEO of PepsiCo where he was behind the “Pepsi Challenge” campaign that challenges Coca-Cola customers.
BlackBerry has dominated for years the smartphone market, but it got to the point of being put up for sale after losing market share in the face of strong rivals such as Apple and other manufacturers of phones using Google’s Android operating system.
BlackBerry has concluded a preliminary agreement in September for a takeover worth $4.7 billion with a consortium of investors led by Canadian insurance group Fairfax Financial Holdings, one of the largest shareholders of the Waterloo, Ontario based manufacturer of smartphones.
The company is also negotiating with Google, SAP and Cisco Systems, have previously said sources close to the situation.
BlackBerry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin are considering a bid for the company and also the Chinese group Lenovo is preparing for a possible takeover of the Canadian phone manufacturer, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal.
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