je.st
news
BlackBerry abandons sale, CEO steps down
2013-11-04 15:39:00| Telecompaper Headlines
(Telecompaper) BlackBerry has abandoned plans to sell the company and instead agreed a new investment and management team led by its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial. The handset maker will issue USD 1 billion in convertible debt to institutional investors, including USD 250 million to be acquired by Fairfax. The seven-year debt at 6 percent annual interest can be converted at USD 10 per share, a 28.7 percent premium to the current share price, and represent a 16 percent stake in the company. As part of the new plan, Thorsten Heins is stepping down as CEO. John S. Chen, the former CEO of Sybase, will become executive chairman and be responsible for strategy and organisation at BlackBerry. Fairfax's CEO Prem Watsa will become lead director and chair the compensation, nomination and governance committee. This puts him in position to lead the process of appointing a new CEO at the company. Chen will serve as interim CEO until a successor for Heins is found. The announcement from BlackBerry comes the same day bids were due in a proposed auction of the company. According to press reports, a variety of potential acquirers were approached, ranging from Cisco to Qualcomm to Facebook, but few concrete offers emerged. Fairfax earlier offered to pay USD 4.7 billion to acquire all of BlackBerry, but media reports said it had trouble raising the full financing. BlackBerry did not name the other institutional investors involved in the debt issue.
Tags: sale
steps
ceo
blackberry
Category:Telecommunications