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Blackberry bidders struggle to meet $4.7bn bid as deadline looms and its co-founders line up rival move

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By Stephen Lepitak, -

November 2, 2013 | 3 min read

Blackberry bidder Fairfax is struggling to raise financing with only two days to go until the 4 November deadline to meet its bid of $4.7bn, it has been reported, while its co-founders are set to launch a bid to reacquire the mobile company.

Fairfax was given seven weeks by Blackberry, which announced a Q2 loss of made a net loss of $965m earlier this year, to come up with the funds for its offer while it sought other potential deals to take over the struggling mobile phone company. However, reports suggest that its financial partners, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets, have been rebuffed by potential lenders.

According to Reuters, which has cited companies such as Google and Cisco in the past as potential bidders, other companies may yet still enter the frame, including the company’s founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, who, according to the FT, are forming a consortium in an attempt to form a bid alongside Cerberus Capital Management. It has been claimed that the same consortium has invited chipmaker Qualcomm to become involved as well.

Rumours circulated earlier this week that Blackberry had met with Facebook to discuss a potential bid, while Bloomberg has also claimed that New York private-equity firm Cerberus has signed a NDA in order to access Blackberry’s financial details.

An open letter was published by Blackberry in order to reassure customers, stating: "These are no doubt challenging times for us and we don't underestimate the situation or ignore the challenges.”

Blackberry has not commented on reports at the time of writing.

Earlier this month, Blackberry also rolled out its BBM messaging service as an app to use on rival Android and iOS devices.

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