In a sign of the times, BlackBerry is up for sale.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the once-powerful company officially went up for sale on Monday, confirming speculation from social media.

The news of BlackBerry's sale arrives less than a month before rival Apple is expected to unveil the next iPhone. It was announced that BlackBerry's board and a special committee has hired J.P. Morgan Chase to "examine its strategic options, including an outright sale, joint ventures, or strategic partnerships," according to the Wall Street Journal.

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins hinted in May 2012 that the company could soon be up for sale but said that it was carrying out a strategic review with the help of J.P. Morgan Chase.

BlackBerry is just four years removed from controlling more than half of the North American smartphone market. Now the company only has 3.4 percent of the market.

Most recently, the company released the BlackBerry 10 operating system and the well-reviewed BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones, but they received similar reception to competing phones. Francisco Jeronimo, a researcher for the IDC, told PCWorld.com that the company is out of options.

"It is very clear that BlackBerry 10 isn't a success after all, and won't save the company," he said. "I believe the only option (Blackberry) has is to sell the company, because I don't think there is anyone willing to license BlackBerry 10," Jeronimo said.

BlackBerry's lack of success in the most recent quarter is a clear sign of a dismal future. According to Vauhini Vara of The New Yorker, BlackBerry only managed to sell a fifth of what Apple sold in the last quarter.

Engineering students Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin founded BlackBerry in 1984, and the company emerged as a top company in tech communications. Only in the last six years has Blackberry found itself struggling to keep up, since the introduction of the iPhone and Android operating system.