Possible smartphone buyouts

[ahiayosakqeq]

Hey guys, I've been looking at the market lately and noticed computer giants moving into the smartphone industry. This has been going on for sometime now. Apple and Samsung have always been around as far as we know. The recent purchase of Motorola by Lenovo for $2.91 billion is further proof. Google bought Motorola for $12.5 billion in 2012. Google stripped Motorola of what they deemed useful patents that somehow related to the production of their Nexus.

My current idea is rough and speculative. I believe Blackberry and HTC may be possible candidates for future M&A. I know Blackberry had a stance on not being for sale, but let's let their financials do the talking for them. Dell and HP really need to get their head in the game and move into the smartphone market sooner rather then later. Their competitors are already there and positioning themselves to defend against Apple and Samsung. I wish I could guess the timeline of when I think this will happen, but I'm not sure. I am going to purchase some shares in the near two months. I am curious on what you guys think. Please share your thoughts.

[aixuzayimau]

Food for Thought: why not look to what is beyond smartphones?

If you look at recent numbers, we could argue smartphone sales are peaking. Apple's iPhone is the same thing with just a new feature every 6 months, Hence why they have to offer colors now to hype the masses into buying the new Gold one...

Who is innovating and actually creating new products using the processor, touchscreen and software technology? Smartwatches? Glasses? Digital Health Monitors? Tables with touchscreens? Computers like we saw in the Iron Man movies? Who is really going to lead the way during the next wave of new products?

I'm not saying BBRY can't or won't be bought out but I'd rather play BBRY technically (actually I have recently) than gamble (fundamentally) on a stale product when there are fresh ideas coming elsewhere. Just think about it.

[akigurulo]

Hey Blaine, thanks for the input. I appreciate it. I'm new to trading and have only traded a handful of times. I just wanted to practice my idea about potential acquisitions. I don't doubt that there are more profitable plays, because hell, there usually is.
I wanted to trade based on some of my ideas and believe this is still somewhat risky and speculative. Blaine, can I interpret what you said as looking for other M&A's or do you mean to see technologies assembled within the phones?

I would definitely like to allocate some of my funds to market innovators and market leaders. This trade is something I believe and am willing to test out. This is only a practice trade that will require capital. I won't be going to heavy on this either. The main idea I am hoping to learn is to be able to spot potential M&A's. I think this can teach me how to spot more potential M&A's in the future in various markets. I think of this only as a lesson to be learned. I hope this makes sense and doesn't sound to fishy. I would've, could've and should've bought Blackberry at around $6-7 because I believed they had strong fundamentals (debt to finance cash flow). Then that would have lessened my risk. Hey, we don't and shouldn't dwell on past mistakes. Lesson I learned from playing poker.

[AlbertDumb]

Also the way I see how competitive the market is trending in this industry is leaving the companies with limited options. Essentially it is very polarized and I am left to conclude what the most likely scenarios are. I think case 1 would be the most common and likely, be bought out by a computing giant without a smartphone and tablet department for the brand equity and/or the patents they have. This would be similar to how Google bought Motorola and stripped the technology for their Nexus and repackaged it for sale to Lenovo. There aren't too many ways to reinvent the smartphone with patents being around. Case 2 would be, do well and Blackberry and HTC might be able to expand or diversify their market, which is tough and unlikely (but possible) with Apple and Samsung taking the market shares. Case 3 would be they never get bought out by any company (Dell, HP, Toshiba, or Sony even though they don't own Vaio anymore). This depends on how hard it is to enter the market through creation or buyout.

[AlexSomov]

The only one that was interested in BBRY was Facebook. They had 1 meeting and nothing happened.

HP has a smartphone going into India. They claim that the market still up for grabs and their phone has an oversized screen which those there are currently seeking.

Dell is partnering with BIDU to launch a smartphone in China.

Sony is selling their PC business to focus more on mobile, smartphones and tablets. Not going to buy BBRY. Believe it or not Sony sold 10.7 million phones last quarter. That is already more than what BBRY did in the 3rd quarter (only 4.3 million).

So who wants BBRY? The growth is clearly overseas right now. BBRY did grow in Australia that quarter, but still only accounts for about 3% of global sales.