A troubled BlackBerry forms a special committee to "explore strategic alternatives"-- including possible joint ventures, strategic alliances and even simply selling the company.

Heading the committee is BlackBerry board member and former Goldman Sachs executive Timothy Dattels, together with CEO Thorsten Heins.

"As the Special Committee focuses on exploring alternatives, we will be continuing with our strategy of reducing cost, driving efficiency and accelerating the deployment of BES 10," Heins says.

According to Reuters one alternative BlackBerry might explore is going private, giving itself "breathing room to fix the company's problems out of the public eye." If this happens BlackBerry will not be the first vendor to give leveraged buyouts a go-- Dell is currently trying to do exactly that, if not without a share of, well, shareholder issues.

However, just like Dell, BlackBerry will not find an LBO easy-- shareholder Fairfax Financial (owner of around 10% of BlackBerry) already announces it "has no current intention of selling its shares," even as CEO Prem Watsa steps down from the BlackBerry board due to potential conflicts of interest.

Go BlackBerry Announces Exploration of Strategic Alternatives

Go BlackBerry Says to Explore Strategic Alternatives (Reuters)