Nearly a couple of weeks back BlackBerry announced that it had signed a letter of intent with Fairfax Financial Holdings for a buyout worth $4.7 billion. The offer isn’t binding on Fairfax, which has asked for a couple of months to conduct its due diligence. During this time, BlackBerry is allowed to “go-shop,” which means that it is allowed to talk to other potential buyers. Looks like there might be interest from other players in the market. According to WSJ, Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm, has shown interest in BlackBerry. The company’s co-founder and former co-CEO Mike Lazaridis is reportedly trying to get involved in the buyout bid as well.
According to the report, Cerberus is currently in the process of getting access to the company’s confidential financial information. Once it studies the books, Cerberus may make a bid for the ailing smartphone manufacturer. Lazaridis hasn’t confirmed as yet if he is interested in becoming part of the bid, but he has reportedly met with a number of groups, even Fairfax, to get involved. An additional bid on the table might result in a favorable buyout, since analysts expect that if Fairfax sees it is the only one interested in acquiring BlackBerry, it might lower its current $9 per share bid to $5. Fairfax is already the largest shareholder of BlackBerry, it seems to acquire the remaining 90 percent of the shares to take the company private.
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