After shares stalled on the US stock markets last Friday, amid Blackberry’s intent to lay off 4,500 employees, it has been announced that the tech company’s biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial consortium, are likely to purchase the ill-fated handset manufacturer.
According to the Associated Press, “BlackBerry has agreed to sell itself for $4.7 billion to a group led by largest shareholder, Fairfax. BlackBerry said Monday that a letter of intent has been signed and its shareholders will receive $9 in cash for each share’.
The manufacturer has been blighted by consumer confidence over the years. Originally reigning supreme in the mobile phone market in the mid/late 2000s, the company failed to catch up with the smartphone adopters of Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy series. Their hope of the new Blackberry 10 software, and associated hardware, earlier this year, failed to cause any dents in the marketplace, so the sale has been inevitable.