BlackBerry Takes A U-Turn, Ditches US$4.7BN Sale Plans And Even Fires Its CEO
Failed smartphone maker BlackBerry has fired its chief executive and abandoned a $4.7bn rescue bid from its largest shareholder as it turned to a $1bn fundraising plan in a battle to stay afloat.
By Sadho Ram — 13 Aug 2013, 10:50 AM — Updated almost 11 years ago
BlackBerry Abandons Acquisition Deal With Fairfax, Fires CEO Thorsten Heins. New CEO John Chen To Focus On Software, Not Devices
BlackBerry Ltd abandoned on Monday its plan to sell itself and said its CEO is stepping down, sparking a 16 per cent dive in its share price and raising fears the struggling smartphone maker is running out of options.
Thorsten Heins leaves BlackBerry with a $22m payoff. Photograph: Timothy A Clary/AFP/Getty Images
Image via guim.co.ukAfter a two-month review of strategic options and talks with potential buyers that included Facebook, Lenovo and private equity firms such as Cerberus Capital Management LP, BlackBerry said it will abandon a sale.
The company said it will raise $1bn in convertible bonds instead of pursuing a deal with Fairfax Financial, its 10% shareholder. Fairfax, whose ability to raise the financing for its $4.7bn bid was widely questioned, has pledged to buy $250m worth of the bonds.
theguardian.com
BlackBerry shares closed 16 percent lower at $6.50, giving the company a market value of about $3.38 billion, down from its peak of $80 billion.
BlackBerry named John Chen, credited with turning around Sybase Inc in the late 1990s, as its interim CEO and executive chairman. Sybase, an enterprise software company, was eventually acquired by SAP AG in 2010.
Chen's appointment was a surprise to investors as was the departure of current CEO Thorsten Heins, who will leave in about two weeks after the debt offering is completed. The company gave no reasons for the change.
BlackBerry agrees to sell itself to group led by largest shareholder -- Fairfax
BlackBerry has agreed to sell itself for $4.7billion, marking the end of the smartphone giant following years of devastating losses. BlackBerry said Monday that a letter of intent has been signed with its largest shareholder, a Canadian group called Fairfax.
dailymail.co.ukFairfax head Prem Watsa is a former board member who owns 10 percent of BlackBerry. Watsa stepped down when BlackBerry announced it was considering a sale last month.
The fire sale shows just how desperate BlackBerry had become to halt the hemorrhaging that became even more intense on Friday, when the company announced it was likely to report losses of nearly $1 billion in the most recent quarter and was cutting 40 percent of its workforce, or 4,500 workers.
The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, was once the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and other consumers before Apple’s iPhone debuted in 2007.
Struggling to compete against industry giants, Blackberry forms committee to explore possible sale
BlackBerry will consider selling itself after the long-awaited debut of its new phones failed to turn around the struggling smartphone maker.
in.com
File photo: Thorsten Heins, president and CEO at Research In Motion (now named BlackBerry), holds up the new BlackBerry 10 mobile device at a conference, Tuesday, May 14, 2013, in Orlando, Fla. (John Raoux/AP)
Image via theglobeandmail.comThe company said Monday that its board has formed a special committee to explore "strategic alternatives" in hopes of enhancing the company's value and boosting adoption of its BlackBerry 10 platform.
The special board committee will consider ways to enhance BlackBerry's value and scale, including joint ventures, partnerships or a sale of the company, according to a statement on Monday.
BlackBerry has seen its share price fall by nearly 38% in the last six months. Currently it’s trading at $9.76 on NASDAQ, actually nudging up following reports last week there were reports that the company was looking to follow in the footsteps of Dell and go private.
techcrunch.com
Could any of these be the potential buyer?
Potential buyers of the company haven't come forward despite a welcome mat that has been out for years. Another option for BlackBerry is to follow the lead of PC maker Dell.
usatoday.com
At one point it was reported that Samsung could be looking at buying RIM (what BlackBerry was called previously) but the South-Korean firm had denied any such deal.
firstpost.com
It was also reported that BlackBerry could start licensing its new BB 10 OS to other smartphone makers, similar to what Microsoft is following with Windows Phone 8, but so far no such deal has materialised.
Earlier this year, an official from China’s Lenovo Group told a French newspaper o that the personal computer maker might consider an acquisition of Canada’s BlackBerry at some point in the future.
firstpost.com
A reprot in Quartz says it makes perfect sense for a Chinese manufacturer to acquire BlackBerry since they desire to sell to the world’s most profitable market but do not have any brand recognition in North America.
firstpost.com
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