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BlackBerry CEO and board reportedly considering taking company private

Published Aug 9th, 2013 11:45AM EDT
BlackBerry Private

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It has been more than 15 years since Research In Motion went public in 1998, and what a long strange trip it’s been. RIM was instrumental in shaping the smartphone industry as we know it today. But after being a driving force early last decade, the company sat idle as others continued to innovate. The rest, as they say, is history. We know that CEO Thorsten Heins and BlackBerry’s board are weighing a number of options as the company continues to struggle, but a report on Friday suggests a new option is now on the table: taking the company private. “Chief Executive Thorsten Heins and the company’s board is increasingly coming around to the idea that taking BlackBerry private would give them breathing room to fix its problems out of the public eye,” Reuters’ Nadia Damouni, Euan Rocha and Greg Roumeliotis wrote in a report on Friday, citing multiple unnamed sources who suggest that there is now a noticeable change in the board’s tone. The report notes that no deal is imminent.

Zach Epstein
Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 10 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.