Exclusive: BlackBerry open to going private, sources say

By Nadia Damouni, Euan Rocha and Greg Roumeliotis

(Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd is warming up to the possibility of going private, as the smartphone maker battles to revive its fortunes, several sources familiar with the situation said.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins and the company's board is increasingly coming around to the idea that taking BlackBerry private would give them breathing room to fix its problems out of the public eye, the sources said.

"There is a change of tone on the board," one of the sources said on Thursday.

No deal is imminent, however, and BlackBerry has not launched any kind of a sale process, the sources said. Even if it tried, BlackBerry could find it hard to come up with a buyer and the funding to go private. With the company still posting losses and bleeding subscribers, private equity firms and other buyers may not want to step up.

The company's shares have fallen more than 19 percent this year. Its market value has fallen to $4.8 billion, from $84 billion at its peak in 2008.

BlackBerry, which had been pinning its hopes for a turnaround on its new line of BlackBerry 10 devices, declined to comment. The sources declined to be named because these discussions are private.

BlackBerry's openness to consider a deal marks a radical shift in thinking at the once high-flying smartphone maker. Until recently, BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in Motion and a pioneer in providing secured emails on handheld devices, had been bent on staying independent, betting its turnaround on its latest smartphones.

Last month, Heins said the company was on the right track and just needed more time to fix its problems. He said the company will unveil more devices that run on the BlackBerry 10 operating system over the next eight months.

The company has also been looking at options such as licensing its BlackBerry 10 software and other partnerships.

Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry has recently had discussions with private equity firm Silver Lake Partners about potential collaboration in enterprise computing, one of the sources said.

Silver Lake is caught in a bruising $25 billion battle to take Dell Inc private. Should it succeed in the Dell buyout, one possibility could be for it to collaborate with BlackBerry in mobile computing, where the PC maker has struggled to gain traction, the source said.

The talks with Silver Lake did not involve any buyout or other transaction-related discussions, the source said.

Silver Lake declined to comment.

Pressure is only increasing on the smartphone maker. BlackBerry 10 sales have come in well below some analysts' expectations, raising questions about whether the company can quickly win back market share from Apple Inc's iPhone as well as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy devices and other phones powered by Google Inc's Android operating system.

Some investors say the company must now look at all of its options, from a sale of the whole company to a sale of parts. Its valuable patent portfolio and high-margin services business could draw interest from technology companies.

But private equity firms have circled the company for more than two years and have tried without success so far to figure out ways to structure a deal.

Moreover, Ottawa reviews any big takeover of a Canadian company for competitive and national security reasons. Government officials have often said they want BlackBerry to succeed as a Canadian company, but concede they do not know how things will play out.

(Editing by Paritosh Bansal and Chris Gallagher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-blackberry-open-going-private-sources-040134839.html

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In return to Iowa, Rick Santorum chides GOP, calls conservatives to action

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Source: http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2013/08/08/in-return-to-iowa-rick-santorum-chides-gop-calls-on-conservatives-to-act/article

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Tumblr founder to get $81M to remain at Yahoo

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Yahoo's recently completed acquisition of Internet blogging service Tumblr includes an $81 million payment to Tumblr founder David Karp as long as he remains on the job for the next four years.

The retention payment disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday is part of the windfall that Karp and Tumblr investors realized by agreeing to sell the service for $1.1 billion in May.

Karp turned 27 last month. He started Tumblr in 2007, a few years after he dropped out of high school in New York to concentrate on computer programming.

Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer has pledged not to make any dramatic changes at Tumblr in hopes that the acquisition won't alienate the blogging service's existing users, which includes a substantial number of teenagers and young adults.

As part of her promise "to not screw it up," Mayer is allowing Karp to run Tumblr independently in New York. Yahoo is based in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Karp is believed to own a 20 to 25 percent stake in Tumblr, which means he probably has already received a windfall, which hasn't been disclosed, from the sale to Yahoo. But he must stay at Tumblr until June 2017 under the provision disclosed Thursday to get the $81 million retention payment.

The payment will consist of $41 million in stock and $40 million in cash, according to Yahoo's filing. Another $29 million in stock options and restricted stock is being doled out to other unnamed Tumblr employees over four years.

The documents also disclosed that Yahoo paid a total of $44 million to buy six other companies during the three months ending in June. All told, Yahoo paid about $1.15 billion to buy 10 companies, including Tumblr, during the first half of the year.

Yahoo has bought several other startups since the end of June. The prices for those deals are likely to be disclosed in another regulatory filing in October and November.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-08-09-US-Yahoo-Tumblr/id-d350de25d64f4505921e725958eb6ece

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GOP of Two Minds, at Least, on Immigration

On immigration, the Republican Party is trapped in two trains of thought, each speeding along the wrong track. At the tea party end, there's absolute resistance to normalizing the status of illegal immigrants. On the cheap-labor side, there's this big push to admit as many unskilled immigrants as possible.

The first view, that putting millions of illegal immigrants on the path to citizenship rewards lawbreakers, is unhelpful. It is true that they broke the law by taking jobs in the United States. It is also true that their employers broke the law in hiring them. An honest gathering of all the lawbreakers would make for an interesting roundup.

The building of this 11-million-strong population of undocumented workers had another player -- the federal government. Until Barack Obama assumed office, no president took enforcing the ban on hiring illegal workers very seriously. Also making the job difficult is the loophole letting employers accept any reasonably good-looking Social Security card as proof of right to work here. Social Security cards are often stolen, and plausible ones are easy to counterfeit.

The proposed reforms would end all that. Companies would have to send the information to a central database confirming a prospective hire's right to work here. Tougher sanctions, meanwhile, would motivate employers to follow the law.

Without passage of the immigration reforms, none of this will occur. The Swiss cheese system by which undocumented workers and their employers slip through the law will remain. If you really want to end illegal immigration, the reforms offer the only reliable route. And politically they won't happen if there's no path to citizenship.

This is pretty obvious, but in many cases, animus toward Latinos trumps even self-interest. Iowa Rep. Steve King has built quite a repertory of ethnic insults, most recently referring to border crossers' calves as "the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pounds of marijuana."

The other Republican track wants lots and lots of legal, low-skilled workers to ensure that restaurants, hotels and other service businesses need never raise their wages. Though the hourly pay of cooks and hotel maids is actually falling, there can never be "low-enough" for the cheap-labor rump of the Republican Party.

The bill that passed the Senate provides for a new class of visas for up to 200,000 low-skilled workers. That number was reached through a delicate compromise with labor, which understandably doesn't like the idea.
But Republican Reps. Ted Poe of Texas and Raul Labrador of Idaho want more, many more, low-skilled workers.

They're proposing about 400,000 visas a year. This pleases the American Hotel and Lodging Association -- to an extent.

"Ideally, there should be no cap," association official Shawn McBurney told The Wall Street Journal. "It should be driven by the market."

By market, McBurney presumably means not the United States labor market, but the Western Hemispheric labor market. Hey, throw in the other hemisphere, too.

Labrador plays an interesting double game -- on one hand breathing fire against the path to citizenship; on the other, opening a wide highway for imported cheap labor. Perhaps there's some consistency here: Expanding the low-skilled visa program and keeping illegal immigrants vulnerable both depress wages.

Sympathy goes to that minority of Republicans who understand what it takes to get immigration reform passed and the stakes in not succeeding. They include Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham. Under assault by their party's radical wings, these lawmakers deserve an extra star for bravery.

Of course, demonizing Latinos while ignoring the economic interests of all blue-collar workers is also not great politics. A Republican Party unable to change these directions is chugging into oblivion.?

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/08/08/gop_of_two_minds_at_least_on_immigration__119542.html

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Spike Jonze's 'Her' to close New York Film Fest

NEW YORK (AP) ? Spike Jonze's futuristic romance "Her" will close the New York Film Festival.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the gala selection Thursday for its 51st festival. The film stars Joaquin (wah-KEEN') Phoenix as a Los Angeles man who, in the near future, becomes intrigued with a new operating system voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

Warner Bros. will release the movie from the "Being John Malkovich" director on Nov. 20.

"Her" marks the third high-profile fall release that will premiere at the New York Film Festival. Lincoln Center earlier announced that Paul Greengrass's "Captain Phillips," starring Tom Hanks, will open the festival, and that Ben Stiller's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" will be the centerpiece.

The festival runs Sept. 27 through Oct. 13.

___

Online:

http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2013

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spike-jonzes-her-close-york-film-fest-165343196.html

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Video: Staten Island's Billoli family hosts Canada goose in Midland Beach yard

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- ?A mild-mannered Canada goose, apparently separated from its flock, has taken up residence inside the Billoli family?s fenced-in yard on Baden Place in Midland Beach. The goose enjoys overnight accommodations on a blanket in the garage, and cools off in a makeshift pond.

The goose, its gender yet to be determined, was discovered on Sunday, behind the shed in the back yard of Brenda Schnur, the Billolis? daughter.

?Her new dog found it and started barking at it,? explained Pete Billoli, who has lived across the street for 41 years. ?So I picked it up and carried it across the street. I kinda liked it.?

Billoli set the goose down in his own yard.

?I think he kinda likes it out here ?he?s eating grass and Cheerios.?

The goose is also taking dips in a rectangular plastic storage container that Billoli filled with water. ?Yesterday, he went right in and took a bath and everything,? he said. ?He?s walking around the yard like he lives here.?

The goose was not limping, did not appear to be physically injured, and has ruffled its feathers and extended its wings, said Billoli.

?At night, I walked him into the garage and left him there overnight,? for safety reasons, Billoli added.

?This is his four-star hotel room,? said his wife, Michele, pointing to the garage?s open door. ?And I seem to be the one cleaning up the accommodations.

?This place is like the underground railroad for animals,? she added. ?We?ve never had a paid-for animal ever. Brenda?s brought home everything you could imagine ? she?s the magnet, and we get the animals,? including turtles, cats, and a raccoon.

The Billoilis now tend a male cockatiel, Baretta, that they adopted three years ago.

On Monday morning, their goose guest ?came out of the hotel and stretched his wings. I thought he?d take off, but he didn?t,? said Mrs. Billoli.

?If it was up to my husband, I?d be raising these things. I have a feeling this thing is gonna be with me for life.?

About Canada geese? ?
While the majority of Canada geese still breed across northern Canada and Alaska, their range has expanded dramatically over the past century. ?
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Characteristics? ?
They are currently found breeding in every state and province of North America. ?
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Canada geese are monogamous, and often stay together for life. Pairs may return time and again to the same nest each spring. While the female is on the nest, head lowered to avoid detection, the male stands diligently nearby, keeping watch over her, and confronting any perceived threat. ?
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Upon hatching, the goslings are led by both parents to a brooding ground, near the safety of open water. The downy yellowish goslings are able to walk, swim, and find their own food within 24 hours of hatching. They remain with the parents for up to an entire year.

Source: http://www.silive.com/eastshore/index.ssf/2013/08/canadian_goose_adopt_a_staten.html

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University of Michigan's Rachael Seidler Named as Research Team Leader for Space Biomedical Institute

Dr.?Rachael Seidler, a faculty member at the University of Michigan, has been appointed to lead one of the seven integrated scientific research teams currently funded by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI).

An Associate Professor within the Department of Psychology and School of Kinesiology and Associate Director of the Neuroscience Graduate program at the?University of Michigan, Dr. Seidler is the newly appointed team leader for the?NSBRI Sensorimotor Adaptation team. As team leader, she will help coordinate the studies of scientists at 8 institutions working on 5 projects, including her own. The team's research is focused on examining sensory systems, their interactions, and integration with the brain and motor behavior relevant to long-duration space missions.

Dr. Seidler succeeds Dr.?Charles M. Oman, who is the Director of the Man Vehicle Laboratory at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Oman has ably served as Team Leader since the inception of the Institute in 1997.

Astronauts on exploration space missions will experience gravitational transitions, as well as extended periods of weightlessness and partial gravity, with associated adaptation in their sensory and motor systems. Disorientation, changes in vision, balance, and motor control may lead to impaired performance and compromised mission success.

"Dr. Seidler's scientific expertise and leadership in neurocognitive and sensorimotor research will further strengthen NSBRI's efforts to protect astronaut health and to improve life on Earth," said Dr.?Jeffrey P. Sutton, NSBRI President, CEO and Institute Director.

After receiving her bachelor's degree from the?University of Oregon, Dr. Seidler completed her master's degree and Ph.D. at?Arizona State University. Prior to joining the faculty at the?University of Michigan?she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the?University of Minnesota/Veterans Administration Medical Center.

"I have close to twenty years' experience studying sensorimotor adaptation," said Dr. Seidler, and "I am thrilled to use my skills and knowledge to assist NSBRI in achieving its important goals."

About NSBRI?

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute, NSBRI, is a 501(c)3 organization funded by NASA. Its mission is to lead a national program to mitigate the health risks related to long-duration spaceflight and to apply the discoveries to improve life on Earth. Annually, the Institute's science, technology and education projects take place at approximately 60 institutions and companies across the United States. The science and technology development projects address space health concerns, which include bone and muscle loss, cardiovascular alterations, radiation exposure, neurobehavioral and psychosocial factors, remote medical care, and habitability and performance issues. Research findings also impact the understanding and treatment of similar medical conditions experienced on Earth.

Source: http://spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=41294

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