[NJBlackBerry]

From today's Wall St. Journal

BlackBerry Ltd. has abandoned its plan to sell itself and instead will sell $1 billion of convertible debt to its major shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and other institutional investors, the company said Monday.

The company also said it will replace its chief executive, Thorsten Heins. It said John Chen will act as interim CEO.

Struggling to compete with bigger rivals, the Canadian smartphone market had agreed to a tentative deal in September to sell itself to Fairfax for $4.7 billion, but the Canadian company struggled to raise financing for the deal.

BlackBerry was recently down about 18% in in pre-market trading in New York.

[ZombieBerry]

Guess Watsa couldn't secure the funding for an outright purchase. Unless they go back to a private model and buy all their shares back, I'm not really interested in what BlackBerry does anymore. Clusterf*#$, after clusterf*#$.

Heins should get SFA.

[NJBlackBerry]

I am sure this can be spun that he could of course get funding, but not on acceptable terms. Which means he couldn't get funding. So instead he tosses in $250mm (not $1bn - the rest comes from others) and effectively puts his team in charge.

SFA? In any event, Mr. Chen can't do worse than Heins & Co. At least he was able to take another tech company and sell it off.

An excellent article in today's NY Times; Watsa jumps to the front of the line if there is a bankruptcy, has a 6% load deal with BlackBerry and makes a fortune if (and nothing is a bigger if) BBRY stock goes over $10.

Win/Win.

For ordinary shareholders? Not so much.

[ZombieBerry]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

I am sure this can be spun that he could of course get funding, but not on acceptable terms. Which means he couldn't get funding. So instead he tosses in $250mm (not $1bn - the rest comes from others) and effectively puts his team in charge.

SFA? In any event, Mr. Chen can't do worse than Heins & Co. At least he was able to take another tech company and sell it off.

An excellent article in today's NY Times; Watsa jumps to the front of the line if there is a bankruptcy, has a 6% load deal with BlackBerry and makes a fortune if (and nothing is a bigger if) BBRY stock goes over $10.

Win/Win.

For ordinary shareholders? Not so much.

SFA = Sweet F&^% All

[NJBlackBerry]

OH THAT - yes.
I guess he tried his best. Was dealt a terrible hand, went all in and lost.

[ZombieBerry]

Can I be dealt a losing 22 million dollar hand?

[NJBlackBerry]

That's the way the game is played. They keep falling forward.