BlackBerry might have announced its proposed deal with Fairfax Financial but till the time the final papers are signed, the company is free to explore other options and it is doing just that. Reuters claims that BlackBerry is having discussions with Google, Intel, LG, Samsung and even the likes of Cisco and SAP who are interested in the company’s patent portfolio and servers. If rumors are to be believed, none of the companies are very interested in BlackBerry’s devices business. The deal is expected to be closed on November 4th with BlackBerry being sold to a consortium led by Fairfax Financial for $4.7 billion meanwhile the Canadian company is fishing for better offers.
In related news, a BlackBerry shareholder has filed a case against the company and has accused them of inflating stock prices. CEO Thorston Heins is known to have had a somewhat delusional perception of the future of the company and is being accused of painting a rosy picture of the business prospects of the company’s devices business. BlackBerry earlier reported that it was “progressing on financial and operational commitments” which in hindsight proved to be a very misleading statement. Shareholder Marvin Pearlstein has filed a class action suit and wishes to represent thousands of shareholders who bought stock between the period of 27th September 2012 and 20th September 2013. BlackBerry has had to write down well over USD 950 million on account of unsold BlackBerry 10 devices. The lawsuit states that the writedown and layoffs of over 4,500 employees over the past year have led to a share price drop of 24 percent between the period of September 19th to 25th. The prices went down from $10.52 to $8.01. Pearlstein’s 35 page complaint lists two violations of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. BlackBerry’s woes seem to be increasing over time. The recently launched BlackBerry Z30 too has received lukewarm response with the largest carrier (Rogers) in the company’s home country refusing to carry it. It’ll be interesting to see the proceedings take place over the course of the next month.
[Reuters]