BlackBerry Agrees To $4.7bn Buyout

BlackBerry has agreed to a $4.7 billion buyout by Canadian company Fairfax, just a few days after the firm announced it was dismissing 40 per cent of its staff.

In a statement issued on Monday, BlackBerry said it had “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”.

Fairfax is already BlackBerry’s largest shareholder, owning 10 per cent of its shares, and under the proposed deal the company will offer $9 for each outstanding share.

BlackBerry’s board of directors are said to support the plan offered by the consortium, with a final deal expected in November.

The Canadian smartphone maker has been struggling to compete in the smartphone market for several years due to the dominance by Apple and Samsung, as well as some self-inflicted errors such as a worldwide blackout of its network in 2011.

The phone maker is expected to post a second quarter loss of around $955 million this month.