Money talks, but it seems to talk best when it's through text message.
After Facebook bought WhatsApp last week for a staggering $19 billion, eyes slowly went back to the value of other messaging platforms. We know Snapchat was worth at least $3 billion to Facebook, which they declined. Yet, would they have sold for $19 billion? At least for one company, the answer is "definitely." BlackBerry CEO John Chen was recently interviewed by CNBC during the Mobile World Congress, and he was asked if he would sell one of BlackBerry's defining features: BBM. "I work for the shareholder," he said. " Standard answer. If somebody comes to me with $19 billion, I would definitely sell it. I would recommend to the board to take it."
"I know there's a lot of value in messaging businesses," he continued. "I think the right thing to do is to expand that and market as big as possible and then I (will) worry about the valuation later."
BlackBerry has been expanding BBM in the past year, opening it up to iOS and Android users, while announcing that they would add Windows Phone and Nokia X phones to the lineup.
Chen is confident about his company, even though the U.S. Army had announced it was going to try an 18-month pilot program with iOS and Android phones, which could eventually have the Army moving away from their current BlackBerry phones. "We have a very loyal customer base," Chen said, "You can rest assured that BlackBerry is not going to back down."
[via CNBC]
