BlackBerry abandons deal with Fairfax, Thorsten Heins gets replaced by John S Chen as interim CEO

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We’d reported some time back that BlackBerry was all set to be bought over by a consortium led by Fairfax Financials. The company today announced that it is backing away from the deal and will instead switch over to Plan B. This is likely due to the inability to raise a higher a bid for the company which is suspected to be the aim altogether behind the Fairfax bid. BlackBerry is now looking to raise $1 Billion in cash and will be replacing CEO Thorsten Heins. John S Chen, former CEO of Sybase will be taking over as interim CEO while the board looks for a replacement. The company will raise the money with a private placement of convertible debentures and its largest investor, Fairfax Financials will take up $250 million of the debentures. There were rumors that Qualcomm amongst others was about to bid for the dying company but it looks like that deal didn’t go through either. The next few months should be very interesting as we keep a track of what exactly will happen to the iconic brand. BlackBerry is expected to burn through its $2.6 billion cash pile in about 18 months.

[Via – Reuters]

BlackBerry to be sold to consortium led by Fairfax Financial for $4.7 billion

BlackBerry-Q5-Live-2

BlackBerry’s shares have stopped trading once again ahead of a major announcement. The Waterloo based company has just announced that it has signed a letter of intent agreement. The company will be sold to a consortium led by Fairfax Financial for $4.7 billion. Continue reading “BlackBerry to be sold to consortium led by Fairfax Financial for $4.7 billion”