BlackBerry has today announced that it has signed a letter of intent agreement under which a consortium to be led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited has offered to acquire the company subject to due diligence.
The letter of intent contemplates a transaction in which BlackBerry shareholders would receive $9 in cash for each share of BlackBerry share they hold, in a transaction valued at approximately $4.7 billion.
The consortium would acquire for cash all of the outstanding shares of BlackBerry not held by Fairfax. Fairfax, which owns approximately 10 percent of BlackBerry’s common shares, intends to contribute the shares of BlackBerry it currently holds into the transaction.
BlackBerry’s board has now agreed to the terms in the letter, but BlackBerry can still seek other offers. Fairfax already owns about 10% of BlackBerry. BlackBerry is currently trading at about $8.20 per share.
BlackBerry and Fairfax are now entering a “diligence period” where a number of conditions must be met. This diligence period should last about six weeks. We’ll get more details on November 4.
Last week, BlackBerry announced that it plans to cut 4,500 jobs. It also said it lost nearly $1 billion last quarter.
