BlackBerry Chasing November Sale Insiders Claim

BlackBerry is hunting a fast sale for its troubled business, targeting a deal before the end of November this year, sources close to the negotiations claim, with a shortlist already put together of possible suitors. "Preliminary talks" have already been held by the company, the WSJ reports, with a sales process that is expected to begin imminently, though there's no guarantee that a new owner interested in BlackBerry will actually be found.

However, that's not stopped the BlackBerry board from pushing for a quick finish to the sales search, an insider claims. The sense of urgency has supposedly been amplified by Microsoft's purchase of Nokia, announced earlier this week.

No indications of exactly who BlackBerry – or, in fact, the "special committee" representing it in the sales process – has held the initial talks with have been given. The expectation, though, is that the Canadian firm will be split into pieces in the process, with different buyers for different aspects of the business.

That could mean BBM, the popular messaging service, could end up running as a standalone operation. Other natural splits would be the hardware division and the enterprise server division, each of which could be of interest to rival firms.

At one point, Microsoft was said to be weighing a bid for BlackBerry, but the rumored deal fell through.

BlackBerry's committee of board members handling exploring the sale possibilities was revealed last month, as the company responded to claims that it was planning to sell itself off as its smartphone business struggled. That's likely to continue with Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia, and the company pushes the Lumia range even more.