Blackberry rise on privatisation news

The Canadian smartphone maker, Blackberry Ltd, rose to the highest price in a month after Reuters reported the company is considering going private.

Chief executive Thorsten Heins and the board are coming around to the idea that going private would give them the leeway to fix problems out of the public view, Reuters reported, citing unidentified sources.

While there is a change of tone on the board, no deal is imminent.

The company, which released its new Blackberry 10 lineup this year in a bid to win back market share, has suffered from lacklustre demand and a fizzling stock rally. Last month, the price of its Z10 flagship touch-screen model was cut to $49.99 amid sluggish sales. The phone had gone on sale in the US in March for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

Lisette Kwong, a spokeswoman for Blackberry, declined to comment to Bloomberg on the report.

Before Heins became CEO in Jan 2012, the company held talks with private-equity firm Silver Lake Management LLC about possibly going private, a person familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg News that year. The talks were preliminary and the two sides weren’t able to agree on a potential valuation, the person said.

Blackberry has held recent discussions with Silver Lake about collaborating in enterprise computing, though the talks didn’t involve a buyout or other transaction, Reuters said.

Personal-computer maker Dell Inc. has spent this year pursuing a leveraged buyout with Silver Lake against opposition from billionaire financier Carl Icahn and other shareholders.