Under two weeks ago Blackberry received some good news from Toronto based financial holdings company, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Fairfax is planing to offer Blackberry $4.7-billion dollars (U.S.) for the company, which equates to roughly a $9-a-share-bid. The bid was made at the time when the company’s share value was $9.08; on Friday (Oct. 4th) however the stock fell to $7.69 per share. This new share figure is only 10 cents higher than the $7.59 per share figure that Veritas Inc. has calculated for Blackberry’s liquidation value. Veritas’ analyst Neeraj Monga said that Fairfax leader Prem Watsa would despite the fall in stock price likely be against lowering it’s $9 per share bid, and “would be extremely against withdrawing an offer entirely.”
It will be interesting to see what happens if Fairfax does absorb Blackberry, how will they use the company to benefit, will they revive the free-falling telecommunications company or use it’s resources to help grow themselves bigger and better.
In response to Fraser Denton’s article on Blackberry being behind the times, I completely agree. Blackberry being one of the leading smartphone makers for so long should have caught onto the fact that touch screens were the next big thing. Fraser’s insight and recommendations are on point.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/fraserdenton/2013/10/06/the-squished-berry/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/fairfax-strikes-47-billion-deal-to-buy-blackberry/article14470689/