Blackberry agrees $4.75bn acquisition

Financial services firm and existing Blackberry shareholder Fairfax has agreed to acquire the struggling phone company.

The news followsBlackBerry’s loss of up to $995 million in its fiscal Q2 and plans to fire 4,500 employees. Its Canadian counterpart, who owns around ten per cent of its shares, has bought the company for $4.7 billion. The agreement isn’t watertight, however, and Fairfax can walk away from the deal subject to a due diligence period that runs until November 4th 2013, while BlackBerry is also able to sniff around for other proposals.

In August, BlackBerry formed a special committee andsaid it may sell itself as part of a survival plan. The fact a buyer has arrived so quickly suggests the company was already in numerous talks with businesses.

Sister site ME has the full story.