Fairfax financial has agreed to a deal in principle, of acquiring Blackberry for 4.7 Billion dollars. The news comes after a long struggle from Blackberry to stay in the game. They have recently launched their flagship device, however, it was late on the scene and appears to be another forgotten mobile device out of the RIM range.
The new handover to Fairfax would mean that the BlackBerry name would be going private. Fairfax has been already with the RIM based firm and had a 10 % stake in the company. It was also the largest shareholder in the market.
The official handover time is said to be November the 4th after all pending procedures are finalized.
BlackBerry on a whole has been on the decline and struggling to keep up with the current iOS, Android and Windows Phone competition for a long time. They had also recently announced 1 billion dollars worth of lost revenue this year. Furthermore, they had recently sacked many of its employees.
Just what exactly Fairfax’s intentions are with the company are currently unclear, but one thing is for certain: there will continue to be some major changes made if there is to be a comeback of some sort for the Blackberry brand. The fact that they were purchased means that obviously Fairfax does see a future.
The official press release from the team:
We believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees. We can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world.