BlackBerry Will Sell Itself For $4.7 Billion

Nerval's Lobster writes "A consortium led by financial-holding company Fairfax Financial has agreed to acquire BlackBerry for $4.7 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Fairfax Financial will acquire every BlackBerry stock-share it doesn't already own. Further details are pending, including future management structure and whether BlackBerry will continue with its stated intent to lay off thousands of employees over the next few months. 'The Special Committee is seeking the best available outcome for the Company's constituents, including for shareholders,' Barbara Stymiest, chair of BlackBerry's Board of Directors, wrote in a statement. 'Importantly, the go-shop process provides an opportunity to determine if there are alternatives superior to the present proposal from the Fairfax consortium.' A special committee formed by BlackBerry's Board of Directors had spent the past few weeks looking for a potential acquirer. BlackBerry has seen its market-share crumble as businesses and consumers embrace rivals such as Apple's iPhone and Google Android devices."

Re:I would sell myself for $4.7 billion.

[jellomizer]

Checking last years balance sheet 4.7 billion is about how much RIM has in owned property.

Re:Prediction:

[M1FCJ]

Add two single-digit numbers, larger than 7 and you will get a value nearer to 20 than 10.
I don't think maths need explaining more than this.

Hey Canadians - Not Nortel...

[CohibaVancouver]

Comparisons between Nortel and Blackberry are unfair. Although the burst of the internet bubble contributed tremendously, the nail in Nortel's coffin was fraudulent accounting and improperly booked revenue which led to the principals being criminally charged. None of this occurred with Blackberry - BB was the victim of bad corporate decisions and management reacting too late to the iPhone and Android effect. Disappointing to the extreme, but very different from the Nortel story.

Re:Layoffs?

[Kielistic]

What are you talking about? First of all BlackBerry is a Canadian company so your spiel about the tea party and foodstamps is more trite garbage.

They still have a large workforce, tonnes of patents and their own OS ecosystem. There interesting things to be discussed other than lame jokes. I know Slashdot has made lame and tired jokes into an art-form but it would be nice if it didn't fully take the place of real discussion.

Re:I would sell myself for $4.7 billion.

[jratcliffe]

Looking at the balance sheet, there's about $2.8BN in cash, $900MM in inventory (figure that's basically zero now), and payables exceed receivables by about $1BN, so you're looking at a liquidation value of around $2BN. There's $2.2BN in property/plant/equipment, but it's highly unlikely you could actually get $2.2BN for that.