BlackBerry executives met with Facebook last week to see if the social networking giant might be interested in bidding for the struggling handset vendor, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Executives from the vendor flew to California to meet with their counterparts at Facebook. However it is unclear if the social network firm will follow up with an actual bid. Neither company commented.

The social networking giant can be added to the growing list of tech giants linked to a possible BlackBerry bid, including Google, Cisco and Lenovo. Firm interest has been somewhat thinner on the ground.

There has been frequent speculation in the past that Facebook might build its own smartphone. The closest it has actually come to date is a device released earlier this year built by HTC, which features a custom user interface created by the social network. It is unclear how significantly the HTC device sold.

If not hardware, it is unclear what other BlackBerry assets would be of interest to Facebook. The vendor has substantial patents but it is arguable about how many would be relevant.

In terms of other assets, BlackBerry has been seeing a recent Android and iOS-inspired revival in interest for BBM but Facebook already has its own Messenger service.

Facebook is joining a group of potential bidders whose names also include former Apple CEO John Sculley. SAP has ruled itself out in the last few days.

In terms of firm interest, Fairfax Financial announced a tentative offer for BlackBerry. And a securities filing earlier this month showed co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin are also considering a bid.