BlackBerry’s Board of Directors acting on the recommendation of a special committee have approved the letter of intent to seek financial from both Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets as a consortium led by Fairfax. Fairfax Financial is BlackBerry’s largest shareholder and will be taking acquiring BlackBerry. The deal is expected to be closed by November 4th. However till the date, BlackBerry is permitted to actively evaluate and potentially enter into negotiations with parties that might offer better alternatives. If the deal with Fairfax goes through, the company will go private and each shareholder is expected to get $9 per share.
Fairfax already owns about 10% of BlackBerry stock and would acquire the remainder for $9 per share and take the company private under the terms of a letter of intent. BlackBerry stock was trading at around $8.25 when the deal was announced.
The deal would also "provide them with some financial stability so its enterprise customers would not feel compelled to replace them for fear of going out of business,"
BlackBerry was once the leader of the smartphone sector. At a time when other companies were asking consumers to struggle with clunky Web interfaces to email, BlackBerry revolutionized messaging with its handsets that combined an email client with a real keyboard.
But the company failed to evolve its handset range when Apple launched its iPhone and full-screen touchphones began attracting consumers. Its BlackBerry 10 operating system, released earlier this year after more than a year of delays, was an attempt to turn things around but many analysts saw it as coming too late.
Fairfax already owns about 10% of BlackBerry stock and would acquire the remainder for $9 per share and take the company private under the terms of a letter of intent. BlackBerry stock was trading at around $8.25 when the deal was announced.
The deal would also "provide them with some financial stability so its enterprise customers would not feel compelled to replace them for fear of going out of business,"
BlackBerry was once the leader of the smartphone sector. At a time when other companies were asking consumers to struggle with clunky Web interfaces to email, BlackBerry revolutionized messaging with its handsets that combined an email client with a real keyboard.
But the company failed to evolve its handset range when Apple launched its iPhone and full-screen touchphones began attracting consumers. Its BlackBerry 10 operating system, released earlier this year after more than a year of delays, was an attempt to turn things around but many analysts saw it as coming too late.
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