Blackberry's biggest shareholder buys out what was once the world's smartest phone company
Just 10 short years ago Blackberry phones were so popular, they were known as "Crackberries." Yesterday as Apple iPhone sales hit new records, Blackberry agreed to be bought out for $4.7 billion by a group led by its biggest shareholder.
Blackberry Z10: mountain of unsold phones
Fairfax Financial Holdings will offer $9 a share in cash - 3.1 percent up on BlackBerry’s closing price last week. The consortium taking the company private is still seeking financing for the offer.
BlackBerry, once the smartphone leader, was forced to seek buyout offers after a new operating system failed to produce a comeback earlier this year, said Bloomberg.
For the next six weeks, Fairfax will crawl over Blackberry's books while BlackBerry Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins and a special board committee look out for any alternative proposals.
“This transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees,” Fairfax CEO Prem Watsa said in a statement.
Blackberry is no longer to market its phones to the general public, concentrating instead on business customers.
“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,” said Watsa.
The Ontario-based company is cutting 4,500 jobs and writing down as much as $960 million for unsold Z10 phones .“Our offer provides an extremely compelling combination of attractive and certain value for shareholders,” Fairfax said in a filing.