BlackBerry agrees to $4.7bn takeover by Fairfax Holdings consortium

Smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd said yesterday that it had agreed in principle to be acquired by a consortium led by its biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, for $4.7bn (£2.9bn).
By The Newsroom
Published 24th Sep 2013, 10:04 BST

Fairfax, led by Canadian investor Prem Watsa, owns 10 per cent of BlackBerry.

It has offered to pay $9 a share in cash for the Canadian company, which last week said it expected to report a quarterly loss of nearly $1bn, along with far weaker sales than analysts had been forecasting.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world,” Watsa said in a statement

Shares in BlackBerry had plunged since Friday, when the company warned of a sharp drop in revenue and massive job cuts. The group has until November 4 to conduct due diligence.

The stock traded up 27 cents at about $9 on Nasdaq after being halted earlier during the day.

The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, was once the dominant smartphone for consumers before Apple’s iPhone debuted in 2007.

Related topics:BlackberryApple