Blackberry bought for £3 billion

Blackberry shareprice chart
Chart of Blackberry’s share price since 2000. Via Google Finance.

 

It was announced on Monday that the mobile phone manufacturer, Blackberry, will be purchased by Fairfax Financial Holdings for $4.7 billion (~£3 billion). Fairfax Financial will be paying $9 (£5.60) per share.

Blackberry Z10 & Q10
Blackberry’s latest handsets – the Z10 and Q10.

The acquisition comes following news that Blackberry is expected to make a $1 billion (£620,000) loss in Q2 of this year. Blackberry have also announced that over 4,000 staff, around 40% of their workforce, will be laid off. What’s more they also had to sell their private jets.

Shares in Blackberry were frozen yesterday at $8.23 (£5.13) after the news of their operating loss.

This leaves the billion dollar question – what’s next for Blackberry?

What are your thoughts?