Blackberry

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Wednesday, September 25, 2013By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday, September 25, 2013

BlackBerry takeover offer buys company time

A takeover is necessary to give battered BlackBerry the time it needs to get itself back in order, company watchers say.

On Monday, BlackBerry said a consortium led by Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. had signed a letter of intent to buy the company for $9 US a share in a deal valued at $4.7 billion US.

The news came just days after BlackBerry announced it would take a non-cash loss in the second quarter of $930 million to $960 million, mainly due to its large inventory of unsold devices. The company said at the time that it sold only 3.7 million smartphones in the second quarter, and was cutting 4,500 jobs.

If the Fairfax bid is succesful BlackBerry, which went public in 1997, would disappear from stock markets. But it would gain time to fix its business away from the public scrutiny that comes with quarterly results and coverage by analysts, and the media.
“Taking it private [is] the only way to save anything,” said Iain Grant of technology research and strategy firm SeaBoard Group.
“Otherwise just continue circling the drain — every quarter losses continue, confidence evaporates, no magic [equals] no value,” Grant said in an email to CBC News.

Peter Misek, managing director at investment bank Jefferies in New York City, said the letter of intent “is a bit of a relief.”

“It kind of sets the bar below BlackBerry, stabilizes the business and allows them potentially to keep going,” he told CBC’s Lang & O’Leary Exchange.

Fairfax Financial, which is led by Prem Watsa, already owns about 10 per cent of BlackBerry. Watsa served on the BlackBerry board from January 2012 until August 2013, when he stepped down citing a potential conflict of interest. (Source: CBC News)

Tuesday January 24, 2012

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday January 24, 2012

RIM’s Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resign

Smartphone pioneers Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are stepping down from their chief executive roles at struggling BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion Ltd. in a dramatic shakeup that will see Thorsten Heins take the leadership reins as CEO.

But despite a more than two-thirds decline in RIM’s share price over the past year, Heins signalled that he will largely stay the course set by Balsillie and Lazaridis, who will remain significant shareholders and continue to hold seats on the Waterloo company’s board of directors.

“Mike and Jim took a bold step 18 months ago when RIM purchased QNX to shepherd the transformation of the BlackBerry platform for the next decade,” Heins, who will sit on the board, said in a news release. “We are more confident than ever that was the right path.”

In an interview with the Star Sunday night, Heins blasted critics who have dismissed RIM as yesterday’s company, saying it’s still a solid financial performer.

“The perception just doesn’t match the reality,” Heins told the Star. “We’ve got $1.5 billion in the bank, and virtually no debt. We’ve also got a 75 million subscriber base.”

A plummeting share in the U.S. smartphone market isn’t the only measuring stick RIM should be judged by, Heins said.

“It’s not just smartphones. We’ve got a data network, we’ve got services,” said Heins. “In a lot of countries around the world, we’re the No. 1 smartphone maker. In the U.S., yes, there’s a challenge.” (Source: Toronto Star)