Boston, MA 10/08/2013 (wallstreetpr) -After dominating the market in the early years of the smart phone revolution, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has found itself in decline for quite some time due largely to the emergence of Apple and Samsung as the new frontrunners in the technology arena. Despite hopes of making a comeback with their new Z10 phone, performance still remains less than impressive and financial results released in September showed more job cuts and massive revenue shortfall. At its peak in 2007, BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) had a valuation of approximately $70 billion but when it was announced that the company was up for sale, current valuation has it now place at just over $4.5 billion.
The impending privatization of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is expected to be handled by Canadian insurance company Fairfax Financial and while analysts believe that the privatization exerc ise can prove to be a big boost for the company, it might very well be a case of too little too late. Even in China, the world’s largest smartphone market and a usually strong region for BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), sales are on the decline and customer brand loyalty seems to be waning. The newest line devices which were supposed to provide competition for heavy hitters like the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S4, have still not been made available in China as yet and interested customers have to resort to buying online if they are not content to wait until year end for the official release.
Issues like this are just symptomatic of the problems BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is currently facing and the outlook continues to remain bleak. Lack of proper planning and forward thinking has the company now battling for its life and some even suggest that saving the brand is now an impossible feat. One can only watch to see if the restructuring that is taking place can help get BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) back to a position of strength.
