BlackBerry founders Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin are weighing taking over the distressed smartphone company as it searches for a savior.
Lazaridis said on Thursday in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that he and Fregin are looking to potentially acquire the 92 percent of the shares they do not currently own, either by themselves or with other interested parties. They have hired Goldman Sachs and Centerview Partners to help them explore options.
The filing said Lazaridis and Fregin own 8 percent of BlackBerry.
Their announcement is the latest sign of investor interest in BlackBerry after the company launched a review to consider a possible sale or breakup of its operations.
The Canadian company announced last month that Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, which owns close to 10 percent of the company, signed a letter of intent that “contemplates” buying BlackBerry for US$9 a share, or US$4.7 billion.
Fairfax, BlackBerry’s largest shareholder, is trying to attract other investors. Private equity firm Cerberus is also interested in looking at Blackberry’s books as a step toward a possible bid.
The stock is trading below Fairfax’s tentative offer on fears that the deal will not go through, or that the final price will be lower. Shares of the company rose US$0.09, or 1.1 percent, to US$8.20 on Thursday.
Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry recently announced 4,500 layoffs, or 40 percent of its global workforce, and reported a quarterly loss of nearly US$1 billion.
The founders may be invested in keeping the struggling BlackBerry from being broken up in a sales process.
“It’s his baby. If anyone is going to see value in the company it’s him,” BGC analyst Colin Gillis said, referring to Lazaridis. “He founded this company. I’m sure it’s not pleasant to watch the spot it is in and he sees value in it. It must hurt to see reports that this thing is going to get ripped up and fed to the vultures.”
And Lazaridis has a reputation to protect. He has long been celebrated as a Canadian business hero, even appearing in the country’s citizenship guide for new immigrants as a model of success.
A spokesman for Lazaridis, who owns about 5.7 percent of BlackBerry, said he would not comment beyond the filing. Fregin helped Lazaridis found the company formerly known as Research In Motion and served as vice president of operations before he left. The filling said the goal is “stabilizing and ultimately reinventing the company based on a plan developed by them.”
The head of Fairfax, Prem Watsa, has also said he is not interested in buying BlackBerry to break it apart and that he wants to see it survive and exist in Canada. Watsa and Lazaridis are friends — Lazaridis recruited Watsa to join BlackBerry’s board when he stepped down as co-CEO in January last year. It remains to be seen whether the two team up on a bid, Gillis said.
“The Special Committee, with the assistance of the company’s independent financial and legal advisers, is conducting a robust and thorough review of strategic alternatives. We do not intend to disclose further developments with respect to the process until we approve a specific transaction or otherwise conclude the review of strategic alternatives,” BlackBerry spokeswoman Lisette Kwong said in an e-mailed statement.
She declined to comment on the filling by Lazaridis and Fregin.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Taiwan is open to joining a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) program if one is created, but on the condition that countries provide delivery even in a scenario where there is a conflict with China, an energy department official said yesterday. While Taiwan’s priority is to have enough LNG at home, the nation is open to exploring potential strategic reserves in other countries such as Japan or South Korea, Energy Administration Deputy Director-General Chen Chung-hsien (陳崇憲) said. While the LNG market does not have a global reserve for emergencies like that of oil, the concept has been raised a few times —
RSS