Apple Inc. (AAPL) a Possible BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY) Suitor?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been one of the most-watched companies – not just tech companies – in the world; it seems it is a bellwether for the health of the economy, which might seem to make sense as the company has filed to impress on its last couple most-recent quarterly earnings. BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is almost the virtual opposite of Apple, as the Canada-based smartphone maker tried to re-invigorate itself but is finding its life being slowly sucked out as its market share continues to drop and the company continues to be in the red despite introduced completely new devices and a new operating system.

Do you imagine the possibility that Apple CEO Tim Cook and BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins could sit down for coffee in the coming weeks to discuss a rare alliance, where one becomes the boss of the other? We’ll discuss more below about the latest rumors.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL): Latest Rumors on the Latest iPad

If it weren’t for rumors, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) would only be in the news a few days a year instead of having an entire blogging cottage industry following the company. One of the latest rumors of the day involving Apple surrounds the latest edition of the iPad.

Tiffany Kaiser of Daily Tech via a report from the Wall Street Journal says that Apple is moving to add the touch-screen technology it introduced in its smaller iPad Mini and will look to add it to the new iPad, called the iPad 5. Word is, from highly placed “sources” (unidentified, as is consistent with a juicy rumor), that the new iPad will incorporate the similar film-based touch-screen technology that  it used on its smaller iPad, to replace the glass-based touch screen tech that had been used on previous iPad models.

With this new tech, it would make the new iPad thinner and lighter in weight than previous iPad models, without compromising the Retina display. There is no word yet on when the new iPad would be on store shelves; the next Apple event  announcing a new device is slated for September 10 involving the iPhone franchise.

Could Apple Harvest BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)? Yes. Will It?

There is very little doubt that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has the money on hand to be a possible suitor for BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). After all, Apple has more than $140 billion in cash, and the current market cap of BlackBerry on the U.S. stock market is a little more than $5 billion. Would the idea of taking over BlackBerry, eliminating a smartphone competitor and adding a vibrant patent portfolio be appealing to Apple?

David Gilbert of the International Business Times wrote an article Monday that considered  five possibilities for BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), as the company announced Monday morning it was suspending  trading of shares upon the news that the company’s board of directors  created a special committee to look into either selling the company and/or taking it private.

In Gilbert’s analysis of the five possible purchase options, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) were both specifically mentioned as possibilities, due to their respective cash war chests and each company’s desire for  building up their patent portfolios and improving their security.

While BlackBerry may be valued at $5 billion on the market, one could easily see both of these U.S. companies paying a 50-percent or higher premium for nothing else but the patents – especially those that  address BlackBerry’s state-of-the-art security features.

But what is also interesting in the piece, Gilbert had the audacity to mention the U.S. government as a possible purchaser of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), and also included three China-based hardware companies like ZTE and Lenovo. As one might expect, there has been no word from Tim Cook or Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer about BlackBerry.

If you are an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) investor like fund manager David Einhorn, what would you think about speculation regarding BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)? Would you want Apple to pursue this? And if you’re an investor in BlackBerry, like fund managers Andreas Halvorson or Jim Simons, what would you think about the possible suitors? What would you want to happen? As you consider this, take a look at the video below that covers the latest news and rumors about the Apple iPhone 5S.

DISCLOSURE: None

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