BlackBerry does not sell, exchange President - Wyborcza.biz

By Monday, it seemed that Canadian investment company Fairfax Financial take over the BlackBerry smartphone manufacturer for 4.7 billion dollars. The list of potential buyers “Je?ynki” was longer – Intel, Lenovo, Samsung, Google, Mike Lazaridis (co-founder). However, after six weeks so. due diligence (analysis of the condition of the acquired company), which conducted Fairfax Financial, it was a different decision. The Fund will not buy a BlackBerry. Instead, the manufacturer of smartphones will get a powerful injection of capital.

Seven BlackBerry issue convertible bonds worth more than $ 1 billion. Fairfax will lead buyers, and he bought the largest bond package worth approximately $ 250 million.

The entire transaction is expected to last two weeks – said in a statement the BlackBerry.

Who is the new president?

This is not the end of the ground-breaking news. Lost his job as president of Thorsten Heins, who had led the company since January 2012. Temporarily replace it with John Chen. Who is the new president? Chen has extensive experience in the IT industry. After the earlier adventures of the then European IT industry giant Siemens Nixdorf, became president in Sybase, a company that produces software.

his reign improved financial performance of the company, including profits grew consistently for 55 quarters in a row. When you include Sybase, the company was worth approximately 365 million dollars. In 2010, the value was approximately 5.8 billion dollars.

is busy man, as it is also executive positions at the Walt Disney Company and Wells Fargo & Company. Odd as President of the BlackBerry, the company managed to find a “full-time” successor.

In addition, Fairfax strengthens its position in the BlackBerry. Prem Watsa, chairman of the investment fund, will join the board of the Canadian phone manufacturer.

A sudden turn of events led to the slump in BlackBerry przedsesyjnym trading on the NASDAQ, which is a Canadian listed company. Even in the 15 minutes before the opening share price fell by 18 per cent., To 6.9 dollars.

work on a new strategy

Now, the company says it is working on a new strategy of having to pull it out of the financial hole. What exactly are Canadians going to do? We do not know. – I am glad that I was able to join the BlackBerry. It’s a great brand and great potential. But before we announce future success, you need time, discipline and hard decisions – said the new CEO John Chen.

BlackBerry (formerly known as Research In Motion) has been on increasing losses logs. In the second quarter of this year, the company had 1.6 billion dollars. revenue, but the loss from operations amounted to 965 million dollars. The reason? Growing competition from Apple and its iPhone and Android smartphones manufacturers.

The company has a large cash reserves (approximately $ 2.6 billion.), But they have so far melted quickly – even in the first quarter of the company was $ 500 million accounts. more.

By 2015, work has to lose 4.5 thousand. BlackBerry employees. According to estimates research firm ABI Research shows that in the third quarter of this year, the BlackBerry smartphones in the global market shrank to a modest 1.5 percent. Canadians had hoped that the bottom will allow them to hit the smartphone Z10, but by June sold only 2.7 million of these devices. For comparison, the leader in Mobile – Korean Samsung – over one quarter can sell more than 80 million units.

So far no information on the sales of the new flagship “Easy Grip Hackle” smartphone Z30, which hit store shelves in September . Analysts are skeptical about the fact that the new device will beat sales records – yes, it worked out, but there is nothing revolutionary in itself, and in some countries it is more expensive than a new iPhone.