BlackBerry Abandons Sale Plans as Fairfax Struggles to Finalize Deal

Troubled mobile device maker BlackBerry (BBRY) is abandoning its plans to be acquired and instead plans to raise about $1 billion from institutional investors and replace its current CEO, Thorsten Heins, the company announced Nov. 4. The decision was made in the wake of its largest shareholder, Fairfax Holdings, struggling to finalize its $4.7 billion bid for BlackBerry.

In late September, Fairfax, which owns about 10 percent of BlackBerry’s shares, spearheaded a consortium that offered a contingency-laden letter of intent to buy the troubled mobile device maker, acknowledging that it was looking for financial backing from BofA Merrill Lynch (BAC) and BMO Capital Markets (BMO) to take BlackBerry private.

However, BofA and BMO haven’t had much luck convincing other lenders to help finance a bid for BlackBerry, according to a Bloomberg report.

Under terms of the original letter of intent, Fairfax was free to walk away from the deal by Nov. 4 with no consequences and BlackBerry was similarly clear to find a better offer during this so-called “go shop” period. However, if it were to find an alternate suitor with Fairfax still in the game, BlackBerry would have had to fork over at least $150 million and perhaps as much as $250 million to Fairfax in termination fees.

The Bloomberg report, which was published before BlackBerry announced its plans to call off the sale, also noted a bid for the company could show up from the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management in association with BlackBerry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. Nothing tangible had yet appeared from Cerberus but the investment firm is said to have gained access to BlackBerry’s books.

Another wild card in the deal was mobile chip maker Qualcomm (QCOM), which was rumored to possibly join Cerberus in a bid for the company. Qualcomm, which makes the lion’s share of its money from patent licenses for its technology, was said to be interested in BlackBerry’s patent portfolio and its hardware and software lineup.

Similarly, global PC leader Lenovo also was reported to have scoured BlackBerry’s books amid suggestions it might try to make a play for the mobile maker. Lenovo could have absorbed BlackBerry’s financial potholes without even a wayward glance and its patents and security technology could catalyze the PC maker’s smartphone business to warp speed. But the likelihood of the Canadian government sanctioning a foreign business snapping up one of its own carries the probability of a winter heat wave in Ottawa—it could happen but the sun and stars would have to align just so.

BlackBerry’s market value has slipped to $4 billion and its stock has slid more than 30 percent year-to-date. Some analysts have pegged the value of its patents at about $3 billion and its enterprise business at just about $1 billion. The company has about $2.6 billion in cash on hand and investments. Following its announcement, shares of BlackBerry dropped 19 percent to $6.33 in premarket trading.

BlackBerry probably isn’t going to recover anytime soon from the Q2 2013 financial tornado that blew through it in late September, leaving 4,500 fewer employees, a revenue shortfall at $1.6 billion about half of Wall Street’s expectation, a GAAP net operating loss of $995 million, and a paring of one-third of the company’s hardware lineup.