Fairfax having troubles with BlackBerry bid

According to Reuters, Fairfax struggles to raise funds to support its $4.7 billion BlackBerry bid. At the moment, several large banks have declined to participate with financing and they have expressed concerns that BlackBerry may not be able to change its direction to bankrupt.

Sources familiar with the matter have revealed to Reuters that Fairfax, the Canadian investment fund, have been turned down by several large banks including Bank of America and BMO. Currently, Fairfax owns a 10 percent stake in BlackBerry and it is the largest shareholder. The investment company signed a preliminary agreement with BlackBerry and both parties had until today, November 4, to negotiate all details. The deadline for other possible bidders is also today, so the situation around BlackBerry is expected to get clearer by the end of the working day.

Black Berry and Fairfax have decided to comment. According to Reuters, the difficulties in raising funds are connected with the fading relevance of BlackBerry as a company and as a market presence.  Another reason could be the possible interest of other technology companies including Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin who also expressed their interest in buying BlackBerry.

Both Lazaridis and Fregin are working to submit a bid from a private equity company called Cerberus Capital. Qualcomm is another company that can join the group, a person familiar with the stuffs has added. At present, it is not clear if Lazaridis and Fregin will manage to raise the funds needed to make a successful bid and buy the company.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry continues its talks with other technology companies about a possible deal. BlackBerry’s advisers analyze different options including selling different parts of Blackberry’s business and the company as a whole. As we previously reported, BlackBerry has held talks with many companies including Google, Cisco, Lenovo, Samsung, SAP and others.

Source: Reuters