BlackBerry abandons sale, takes investment instead with CEO stepping down

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 04 Nov 2013 8:35 User comments (5)

The BlackBerry circus continues.

After failing to find a buyer for the entire company, BlackBerry has announced it has scrapped its tentative $4.7 billion plan to go private and will instead remain public with a new $1 billion investment from multiple shareholders.

CEO Thorsten Heins will be replaced, and is stepping down immediately with John Chen taking over on an interim basis. Chen was the former CEO of Sybase Inc.

The company's stock collapsed 17 percent today, following the news that it would sell $1 billion of convertible debt to large shareholder Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. and a number of other institutional investors. Fairfax owns 10 percent of BlackBerry already, and will buy at least $250 million of the new convertible debt. Fairfax had offered $4.7 billion to buy the company in September but it is clear that that deal had some issues.

As part of the deal, CEO Heins will step down and make way for Chen, who will also become chairman. Chen says he needs "a little bit of time" to build a workable plan for the company, but it wants to be a business-focused service. "Obviously there are a lot of assets there," Chen added.

Chen took the nearly bankrupt Sybase from the brink of extinction to a $6 billion company by 2010 when it was acquired by SAP.

"I am pleased to join a company with as much potential as BlackBerry," concludes the new CEO. "BlackBerry is an iconic brand with enormous potential--but it's going to take time, discipline and tough decisions to reclaim our success."

Tags: Blackberry Investment CEO

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5 user comments

14.11.2013 22:24

DDR4life

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I think it's inhumane to prolong torturing this beast. Hasn't it gone on long enough? Do the compassionate thing and end its suffering already.

25.11.2013 08:14

Mysttic

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Quote:
I think it's inhumane to prolong torturing this beast. Hasn't it gone on long enough? Do the compassionate thing and end its suffering already.

Although it stands to reason it has no chance to compete against the likes of Droid or Apple mobile devices; you forget that they also still have millions of consumers that rely on their phones. It's not like they are losing $ either, they still have billions in cash reserves to keep the company strong for a couple of years.

I found the main issue with their latest release was their pricing. For the lack of specs given it's supposed to be a smart phone to compete with droid, $500 for a dual-core in this generation of smart phones is a joke. That's what killed them. It should have been half that, if that. If they were smarter still, they should have handed the phone out for free and charge only for the OS and apps.

Either or, my point is, just because they are no longer the leading brand, doesn't mean they can't still co-exist. Should you not like them, here's a thought: ignore their existence, including articles like these.

38.11.2013 16:37

bdaleypsu

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Junior Member

Originally posted by Mysttic:

Quote:
I think it's inhumane to prolong torturing this beast. Hasn't it gone on long enough? Do the compassionate thing and end its suffering already.
Although it stands to reason it has no chance to compete against the likes of Droid or Apple mobile devices; you forget that they also still have millions of consumers that rely on their phones. It's not like they are losing $ either, they still have billions in cash reserves to keep the company strong for a couple of years.

I found the main issue with their latest release was their pricing. For the lack of specs given it's supposed to be a smart phone to compete with droid, $500 for a dual-core in this generation of smart phones is a joke. That's what killed them. It should have been half that, if that. If they were smarter still, they should have handed the phone out for free and charge only for the OS and apps.

Either or, my point is, just because they are no longer the leading brand, doesn't mean they can't still co-exist. Should you not like them, here's a thought: ignore their existence, including articles like these.

Those millions of consumers who still rely on Blackberry are called "morons".

48.11.2013 22:53

ChappyTTV

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Originally posted by bdaleypsu:

Originally posted by Mysttic:

Quote:
I think it's inhumane to prolong torturing this beast. Hasn't it gone on long enough? Do the compassionate thing and end its suffering already.
Although it stands to reason it has no chance to compete against the likes of Droid or Apple mobile devices; you forget that they also still have millions of consumers that rely on their phones. It's not like they are losing $ either, they still have billions in cash reserves to keep the company strong for a couple of years.

I found the main issue with their latest release was their pricing. For the lack of specs given it's supposed to be a smart phone to compete with droid, $500 for a dual-core in this generation of smart phones is a joke. That's what killed them. It should have been half that, if that. If they were smarter still, they should have handed the phone out for free and charge only for the OS and apps.

Either or, my point is, just because they are no longer the leading brand, doesn't mean they can't still co-exist. Should you not like them, here's a thought: ignore their existence, including articles like these.
Those millions of consumers who still rely on Blackberry are called "morons".

No, they're called Businesses, including the employees of entire Cities, including mine. BB's are still widely used by large & small corporations alike and IT departments still prefers them over other smartphones for various reasons. The only "morons" are those that think all BB users are consumer level morons.

511.11.2013 20:48

kutulu1

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My BB Z10 has got to be the best phone ever. Jumped from a Samsung to the Z10 and will never look back.

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BlackBerry abandons sale, takes investment instead with CEO stepping down

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