Posted on Tuesday, September 24 2013 @ 14:21 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Mobile devices are a fast moving market and today's winners are often tomorrow's losers. Recently Nokia sold itself to Microsoft and now former smartphone leader BlackBerry announces that it has agreed to preliminary terms to sell itself to a constorium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings. Fairfax already owns 10 percent of BlackBerry and is offering $4.7 billion for the rest. The consortium plans to focus on the enterprise market by offering superior and secure solutions.
The agreement is subject to regulatory approval and final negotiation, so it's not a finished deal. Fairfax still has to shore up financing. It also has six weeks to conduct due diligence.
Although BlackBerry is free to solicit other bids during that period, it's hard to imagine there being much interest. Last Friday, the company announced a billion-dollar loss attributed primarily to unsold inventory of the new Z10 handset. The smartphone maker also revealed that it would cut 4,500 jobs—about 40% of its workforce.
Source: The Tech Report
