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BlackBerry board reportedly declined offers for specific limbs, wanted to sell the corpse whole

BlackBerry didn't end up with the $4.7 billion buyout it probably needs, instead settling for a $1 billion band aid, a new CEO and the same, uncertain future. It was an anticlimactic conclusion after so many were named as potential suitors, but as Reuters reports, the Canadian firm's board was unwilling to sell the company off piece by piece. Sources claim the board rejected several advances for chunks of the business on the basis it wouldn't pan out well for anyone, whether that be customers, employees or the folks holding the shares. For example, Microsoft and Apple allegedly showed particular interest in the QWERTY King's patents, but the value of the whole pie -- handsets, software, servers, intellectual property et al -- was considered to be worth more than the sum of each individual slice. Apparently, this doesn't rule out the company being dissected in the future, but how long until the idea is revisited depends on when that $1 billion runs out.