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BlackBerry receives buyout offer from Fairfax Capital for $4.7 billion dollars

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Blackberry has just announced (via Business Insider) that an investment firm has put in an offer for the company. At $9 a share, the deal is worth about 4.7 billion dollars in total. Fairfax already owns about 10 percent of Blackberry before the deal.

Having an investment company buy Blackberry does not have a direct impact on the smartphone market. Often though, investment firms buy out companies with the aim of selling off assets separately. For instance, BlackBerry’s patent portfolio may soon be put up for auction as a result of the deal, allowing for smartphone makers like Apple and Google to then bid for the intellectual property without the other baggage associated with buying out the failing company in its entirety.

Indications that Fairfax had intentions to execute a buyout surfaced recently, when the CEO resigned from the board due to conflicts of interest with Blackberry’s “strategic alternatives” decision making process. This suggested Fairfax Capital had at least shown interest in conducting a buyout.

This is likely the end of a relatively quick decline for the smartphone pioneer which was on top of the market as recently as 2008 but failed to innovate against the tide of much better iOS and Android devices.

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Comments

  1. franktan (@franktan) - 11 years ago

    Title and article seems to be contradictory. “Did Fairfax Capital buy or sold the company?”

    • Scott Buscemi - 11 years ago

      Fixed for clarification. Thanks!

  2. franktan (@franktan) - 11 years ago

    After checking the web for other similar news articles, I suggest changing the article title to “BlackBerry sold TO Fairfax Capital for $4.7 billion dollars”

  3. Ryan Callahan - 11 years ago

    The fact that Apple just did more in sales this weekend with the new iPhones than what an entire “legendary” company was bought for is amazing.

  4. @franktan : What was the article title before ?

  5. GamaL (@B0Faris) - 11 years ago

    I am very sad when I read the news

  6. in the pic above thorsten heins looks like he’s lubin’ the deal kenny powers style :D

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.