BlackBerry is looking to complete the sale of parts of its business by November through a rapid auction process, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Sources said the troubled Canadian company has held preliminary talks with potential bidders for the different elements of its operations with a sales process expected to commence soon.

The company announced in August that it had formed a special committee of board members to explore strategic alternatives to its current situation. Options under consideration are “possible joint ventures, strategic partnerships or alliances, a sale of the Company or other possible transactions”.

It is by no means definite that parts of the business will be sold by November, or at all, but the BlackBerry board is understood to want to move quickly.

Sources said that financial organisations such as Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Bain Capital are likely to consider bids, along with Chinese smartphone player Lenovo.

The possibility of Microsoft being a prospective buyer has been thwarted by the software company’s €5.4 billion acquisition of Nokia’s handset business this week. MKM Partners analysts said in a note that the Microsoft-Nokia deal “further relegates [BlackBerry] to the also-ran bin”.

The company has struggled to generate significant market traction following the launch of its first BlackBerry 10 devices earlier this year, with fierce competition from established leaders Android and iOS.

The company has been reported to be considering a spin-off of its BlackBerry Messenger business as a separate subsidiary, while Bert Nordberg, a BlackBerry director and former CEO of Sony Ericsson, told the Wall Street Journal that the company could continue as a niche maker of smartphones while other parts of the company are sold off.