[Superfly_FR]

"More bullets to fight". Loved it.
The Fairfax BBRY investment: One day later | CrackBerry.com

[plasmid_boy]

You misread me -- I am not ideologically against the nixing of deals on national security grounds.

That is why I even think there is a great chance a US company buying BBRY outright will not pass muster.

I am ideologically opposed to the vague and opaque manner the government has killed the Lenovo bid in this case. BBRY and the shareholders deserved at least a number.At the same time, the government needs to open the discussion in parliament, in chambers, at least some pseudo indicia of democratic discussion on such an important issue.

The least they could do is upgrade all their current BlackBerry to bb10 and BES10.

Posted via CB10

[Superfly_FR]

some green in this red sea !
14% to go ... easy baby, keep the rhythm !

[danprown]

I have no faith in Mike L. So far, he has not demonstrated anything with respect to BBRY since he has stepped down and the Globe and Mail article painted him in a bad light.

Likely he was not even heading this "group" and they simply would have used his shares as a toehold for any bid.

Why it is reported that Mike and his group needed another month to review the finan cials is puzzling to me. I am just hoping Mike is angry enough to launch something big here.

[tiziano27]

They did so much harm to the core business in the last two month just to get $1b under draconian terms. What does this say about the situation of the company?

[Superfly_FR]

MeanWhile ...

• BlackBerry (BBRY +3.5%) has been upgraded to Hold by Deutsche and SocGen, and cut to Underperform by CIBC, in the wake of yesterday's events.

Source : Seeking Alpha daily email.

[m0de25]

You misread me -- I am not ideologically against the nixing of deals on national security grounds.

That is why I even think there is a great chance a US company buying BBRY outright will not pass muster.

I am ideologically opposed to the vague and opaque manner the government has killed the Lenovo bid in this case. BBRY and the shareholders deserved at least a number.At the same time, the government needs to open the discussion in parliament, in chambers, at least some pseudo indicia of democratic discussion on such an important issue.

Gotcha, tx for the clarification.

[sidhuk]

some green in this red sea !
14% to go ... easy baby, keep the rhythm !

LOL. It is kinda early here.

[danprown]

Morgan,

Don't Canadian pre-bid early warning rules mean Mike cannot buy any shares unless he issues a press release and files it since he is already over 5%.

Isn't it also pointless to buy shares before a bid since they will not count toward the 90% threshold and will also be excluded if a second-step vote is necessary.

Thanks

Ha! Ha! Ha! That's not the best way to invest! I hope Mike stirs things up here too, but for other reasons, I can hold my block of stock until the kids are retired. The problem I see here is that Mike may feel like he isn't important any more, he is being shut out of his company by the very same people he installed less than two years ago. The same people who failed to turn the company around. That has to be a bitter thing to swallow? As for the financials, he should know a everything he needs to know about BB, it really doesn't matter how many track balls they have in inventory here, it matters that the litigations are over, they are rock solid on software and BES10.1 is going from trial offers to a revenue base. He is buying a company with four great phones and for better or worse, one of the most talked about brands in the world today. I can't see him letting Prem run the show here, to allow Prem to leverage votes to retain control over BB and to shut him out of the picture forever. On top of that, Mike's team looks like a great combo of players to move the company forward. They can get that $ 1.0B in capital from selling off real estate, they didn't have to do this bond offering. Mike is anything but stupid.

[Ribes Nigrum]

I'll be buying today. My first investment in BlackBerry was around the same SP. Still seeing the potential of BB10 and the next generation of handsets like the Z30. Now for some extremely good marketing and focus on the core users and potential users.

"MegaBlackBerry doesn't fit in the avatar box..."

[bungaboy]

Here is the link to the article.

BlackBerry Z30 vs. iPhone 5s: Rethinking What We Want in a Smartphone

A good read.

[exiledcanadian]

Even though BBRY was upgraded by these two, Deutsche has a price target of $6 and SocGen has a price target of $7.

MeanWhile ...

• BlackBerry (BBRY +3.5%) has been upgraded to Hold by Deutsche and SocGen, and cut to Underperform by CIBC, in the wake of yesterday's events.

Source : Seeking Alpha daily email.

[morganplus8]

Morgan,

Don't Canadian pre-bid early warning rules mean Mike cannot buy any shares unless he issues a press release and files it since he is already over 5%.
Mike has already cleared "customs" so to speak with the securities regulators, he has filed for a status update clearly indicating that he shares voting rights to the tune of 8% (re: Doug and vis-vera) . There are few ways to interpret his reasoning for joining forces here. He can purchase, for investment purposes, up to 10% of BBRY stock here but should he go over the 10% limit, he has to file with the regulators his intentions for the purchase (he could still claim to be buying for investment purposes here). So now he is loaded up, has 10% of the float and can make his intentions known that he would like to formally offer $ 9.00/shr for the balance of the shares he doesn't not already own. But unlike Prem, he would buy shares in the open market, as many as he can afford, until the due date of the offer closes and we see how many shares he was able to acquire at $ 9.00/shr. I'm sure Prem's shares won't be in that pool of stock so you are right, Prem will likely hold out here for a better deal. What Mike can accomplish is to hold ownership of the majority of the company and then request that the board allow so many seats be available to him. He can control the voting structure of the board and appoint his own CEO. There's so much that he can do with, say, 30% of the stock.

Isn't it also pointless to buy shares before a bid since they will not count toward the 90% threshold and will also be excluded if a second-step vote is necessary.
We are only talking about 12 million shares here, at today's price, we are only talking about $ 80 MM bucks but it sends a message that he is the new kid on the block and Prem is now the other guy. Prem has made it clear that he doesn't wish to invest in BlackBerry. Mike could easily surpass Prem in share ownership and battle to control the board. If I were Mike and wanted to invest in BBRY, I would buy up to 10% ownership and start the process of making offers for additional stock. In theory, he can make 4 bids up to where he feels he can control the board and stop short of taking it private or paying Prem for his shares. Prem would be reduced to just another investor and have no control of the board with only 10% of the stock. If Mike offered $ 8/$ 10/$ 12 bucks, he would have plenty of stock to control BBRY. His average would still be around $ 10.00/shr. The average would be even less if he started out at $ 8.00/shr and the stock opened up after the halt at $ 7.30/shr, he is free to buy as many shares as he can take at that level thus lowering his ACB.

All of this is mute of course if Mike comes out today and says he backs Prem's plan for BBRY.


Thanks

[Bacon Munchers]

You know Google set up shop 5 minutes away from BlackBerry headquarters right? It might do them good to open an office there but this is not some dinky little town with 1 stoplight.

......................................



........... ahh, nevermind.

[BB Fightclub]

Canadian takeover rules:
CSA propose amendments to early warning reporting regime to enhance disclosure : Canadian Securities Law

a couple of Quotes:
Currently, under the EWR regime, prescribed disclosure is required by any investor that acquires beneficial ownership of or the power to exercise control or direction over 10% or more of any class of a public company’s voting or equity securities. Additional reporting is required on each incremental acquisition of 2% as well as a change in a material fact contained in an earlier report. Certain eligible institutional investors (EIIs) can take advantage of relaxed timing requirements for early warning reporting under the alternative monthly reporting (AMR) regime.
Quote:
Changes to Scope of Alternative Monthly Reporting

Under the current regime, an investor that qualifies as an EII is entitled to utilize the AMR regime, which only requires them to report an increase in ownership of 2.5% or more within 10 days of the end of the month in which the threshold is crossed and does not require a press release or a trading moratorium. The EII can generally remain in the regime unless and until it makes or proposes or intends to make or propose a transaction in which the EII would obtain a controlling interest in the reporting issuer. Upon this happening, they are required to issue a press release and immediately begin reporting in the EWR regime.

[Superfly_FR]

Reading around, found this P.W quote ...

Mr. Watsa dismissed the market’s hostile reaction to the deal’s collapse, saying “I’ve been in the market 40 years. If you decide to make a judgment on what the market thinks for every half an hour, that would be very inappropriate.”

This one goes on his credit+.

[Superfly_FR]

http://forums.crackberry.com/bbry-f3...airman-869528/
24Hrs later: my conclusion ? No one gives it a $h4t ! lol

[abouthsu]

For the first time I sat down and watch Chen's previous interviews on CB front page. Is it just me to think and like how he is in front of camera? I like how he handle interviews and present himself. Having a new CEO is refreshing and a bit of injections of confidence. Doesn't seems like a puppet of PW and hopefully he is indeed a straight shooter with no BS.

[sidhuk]

This company is in the hands of shorts for a long time now. No matter what angle I look at it from. Any future predictions, deals must always be speculated with shorts strong hold on this company. This company is not operating "normal". Natural day to day win or loose happen all the times. Most of this company's ups and downs are manipulated by insiders. This company is without a CEO for last 6 months now. Go figure that out. Not sure what am I betting on?

[morganplus8]

For the first time I sat down and watch Chen's previous interviews on CB front page. Is it just me to think and like how he is in front of camera? I like how he handle interviews and present himself. Having a new CEO is refreshing and a bit of injections of confidence. Doesn't seems like a puppet of PW and hopefully he is indeed a straight shooter with no BS.

Don't get me wrong my friend, I like this guy too. I just want Mike and Prem to get along. Mike is a brilliant man that grew a business to $ 20 billion dollars. He is still brilliant, that didn't leave him in the last 2 years, he and Jim made mistakes but who wouldn't when you are running a company that large?

I want to hear from Mike!!! But I do want the best management possible too.

[_dimi_]

Maybe PW will let Mike in on the 1.25 billion bond issuance?

Posted via CB10

[morganplus8]

This company is in the hands of shorts for a long time now. No matter what angle I look at it from. Any future predictions, deals must always be speculated with shorts strong hold on this company. This company is not operating "normal". Natural day to day win or loose happen all the times. Most of this company's ups and downs are manipulated by insiders. This company is without a CEO for last 6 months now. Go figure that out. Not sure what am I betting on?

I keep looking at Amazon and wonder why they haven't partnered with BlackBerry yet. They could sell BB phones exclusively for BB and drop all of the logistics and costs to BlackBerry. They garner worldwide attention and the distribution is already there. Think of how good it would look for BlackBerry to re-enter the tablet market with Amazon again. Then you have BBM-X, BBM-Channels and Amazon right there!! Revenues would explode under those terms.

The shorts are here today to cover the bond issue risk, if any good news came along that suggested that the bond deal will fail, the stock would rocket.

[morganplus8]

Maybe PW will let Mike in on the 1.25 billion bond issuance?

Posted via CB10

That's a no brainer for Prem but Mike can buy shares all day under $ 7.00/shr. We need some news from Mike!!!!

[BB Fightclub]

Chatter on Berkshire and Fairfax message board:
Prem Watsa and Respect.
I still want to know who put up the other &750,000,000?

[abouthsu]

Don't get me wrong my friend, I like this guy too. I just want Mike and Prem to get along. Mike is a brilliant man that grew a business to $ 20 billion dollars. He is still brilliant, that didn't leave him in the last 2 years, he and Jim made mistakes but who wouldn't when you are running a company that large?

I want to hear from Mike!!! But I do want the best management possible too.

Hi Morgan, I wasn't knocking on anyone if that was the impression you got from my previous post and certainly wasn't doubting Mike as i'm sure is a brilliant man. With the limited time I had with BBRY, I felt bad for TH as I don't think he wasn't really setup to succeed instead he did want he could *I think*. can't speak for others but I'm more pissed and still is mad about the hidden agenda, i don't know if that is really the case but that's how I felt and think shareholder's best interest was not really part of their plan right from the beginning and the pre-ER along came the LOI confirmed it for me.

One of the thing i learned through this process is to separate my passion for their products as it should not be the only reason to invest, instead the management team play a very crucial role with executions. not sure how much better Chen will can only hopefully that's a new start as I don't think time is on their side if BBRY can't get back to focus on business and compete.