Blackberry had a plan to go private by being bought off for $4.7 billion and it seemed that new owners were to take the Hamilton’c company over. BlackBerry announced yesterday that the buyout will not go through and instead they will take Fairfax onboard with their investment of $1 Billion to restructure the BlackBerry maker.
John Chen, BlackBerry’s Interim CEO
BlackBerry also revealed in their press release that Thorstein Heins, the CEO of BlackBerry, will be resigning. The new interim CEO will be John Chen, the former Sybase chairman. Mr Chen has a track record of rebirthing the struggling companies. Sybase ended up selling at 6 times the buying price, but it did take John Chen 10 years to make it happen. If buying and selling of BlackBerry is in Chen’s interest, regardless how good this is for the Ontario’s firm, we’re likely looking at a long haul.
The $1 billion injection should buy some time for BlackBerry to catch up to its competition and earn back some of its lost clientele. Investors don’t take this news too keenly however, as the stock price plummeted to new lows of $6.50 per share yesterday. Part of the reorganisation will be a layout of about 40 percent of BlackBerry’s workforce.
Source: BlackBerry Press
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