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"BlackBerry's most beloved product may be spun off into a separate business, according to a report.\nThe Wall Street Journal reports that BlackBerry is considering spinning off the BBM messaging service into a separate company that would be called BBM Inc. BlackBerry is also reportedly moving execs over to the BBM team and looking to expand on its feature offerings for that division. \nSee also: Who Would Buy BlackBerry?\nA BlackBerry rep declined to comment to Mashable on \"rumors and speculation around BBM.\" \nEarlier this month, BlackBerry confirmed that it had formed a special committee to explore several possibilities including a joint venture or selling off the company. Since then, there have been reports and speculation that potential suitors might acquire parts of the company rather than buying BlackBerry as a whole. \nWhile BlackBerry messenger is a coveted feature among many smartphone users, its current user base of 60 million is well below that of other standalone messenger services. WhatsApp recently passed 250 million monthly active users and Kik, a direct competitor to BlackBerry, has 80 million registered users. \nThat said, BlackBerry is planning to bring its messenger service to iPhone and Android in the near future, which should boost the user base.\nThe company's stock is down about 2% on the day.\nImage: Mario Tama/Getty"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/08/27/blackberry-bbm-spinoff/>