During a CNBC interview at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Blackberry’s CEO John Chen admitted that if offered he would sell the company Blackberry Messenger product for the magic price of $19 billion – same number that Facebook paid to acquire Whatsapp last week. He added, “If somebody comes to me with $19 billion, I would definitely sell it. I would recommend it to the board. ”
After the last week’s sale of Whatsapp, a number of competitive messaging apps saw a huge surge is interest and usage. Blackberry saw it’s only stock have a 4% increase just after the WhatsApp deal was announced.
Chen also added that BBM’s current active monthly users is at 85 million, which is peanuts compared to Whatsapp’s 465 million.
So, what’s your take – is BBM worth $19M