[sulcopete]

That's my take after reading what Prem Watsa said about purchasing BlackBerry through Fairfax Financial - �The brand name, a security system second to none, a distribution network across 650 telecom carriers worldwide, a 79 million subscriber base, enterprise customers accounting for 90 percent of the Fortune 500, almost exclusive usage by governments in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., a huge original patent portfolio, an outstanding new operating system developed by QNX and $2.9 billion in cash with no debt, are all formidable strengths as BlackBerry makes its comeback!�
To me, this is the best news ever for the company. It means going private, where the focus can return to the consumer rather than the stockholders. Prem Watsa is my new favorite person! BlackBerry might just experience a great revival. Best of all, I will continue to rock the Q10 proudly.

[Chase_Manley]

I can sleep better at night now knowing my Q10 will only improve

[Danny Ocean]

That's my take after reading what Prem Watsa said about purchasing BlackBerry through Fairfax Financial - �The brand name, a security system second to none, a distribution network across 650 telecom carriers worldwide, a 79 million subscriber base, enterprise customers accounting for 90 percent of the Fortune 500, almost exclusive usage by governments in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., a huge original patent portfolio, an outstanding new operating system developed by QNX and $2.9 billion in cash with no debt, are all formidable strengths as BlackBerry makes its comeback!�
To me, this is the best news ever for the company. It means going private, where the focus can return to the consumer rather than the stockholders. Prem Watsa is my new favorite person! BlackBerry might just experience a great revival. Best of all, I will continue to rock the Q10 proudly.

I wouldn't bet on this. A media statement/PR is much less of an indicator than the purchase price is. They purchased BBRY for the value of the assets and not a penny more. That doesn't necessarily support the notion that Fairfax (or Blackberry for that matter) actually views this as a turnaround proposition.

Posted via CB10

[rajarizal]

Yeah...asked them to fix this double typing issue first before anything.

MY Q10

[sulcopete]

I wouldn't bet on this. A media statement/PR is much less of an indicator than the purchase price is. They purchased BBRY for the value of the assets and not a penny more. That doesn't necessarily support the notion that Fairfax (or Blackberry for that matter) actually views this as a turnaround proposition.

Posted via CB10

I'm betting on it. To buy it and sell it for the same money makes no sense. Why bother for an even trade? He believes in the value of the brand and that there's an existing market for the product. There's more money to be made in BlackBerry done right. Serious business types and the like don't get excited about i-phones and galaxy. I think he's gonna cater to the market and not try to please shareholders by mimicking apple. This guy Prem is definitely the guy to do it - he's known for it and he's Canadian. I'm very hopeful.

[NaijaBerry]

Hope so I'm hanging on by the Q!

[freedomx20a]

this is all I ever asked for. Now I dont have to go out and buy 2 spare Q10s. So yes BB just lost 2 new sales. lol.

[bbsstmez]

this is all I ever asked for. Now I dont have to go out and buy 2 spare Q10s. So yes BB just lost 2 new sales. lol.

Sshhhhh, you don't want to further devaluate the shares..........

[sulcopete]

Sshhhhh, you don't want to further devaluate the shares..........

If value means what somebody is willing to pay - then things are pretty much set at $9 for now.

[bikenski]

It would be great if Fairfax could wave a magic wand and bring BlackBerry back to its former glory, but that's highly unlikely to happen. Very few individuals are buying BB10 devices, and even fewer companies are deploying BB10 infrastructure.

The one and only reason Fairfax made the offer to buyout the company is for a return on investment. If BlackBerry hasn't been able to make BB10 into a success so far, being taken over by a financial firm is not going to help. If the best return on investment is realized by chopping up the company and selling off the patents and software components that are profitable, then that's exactly what will happen.

My advice is to enjoy the frequent OS updates and apps that are currently available. A year from now I expect these handsets to be pretty much abandoned by what remains of BB, and fewer and fewer apps made available by third parties.

Hopefully I'll be proven wrong, since I'm stuck on contract with a Q10 for another 18 months, but my outlook is not nearly as bright as the OP's.

[Danny Ocean]

I'm betting on it. To buy it and sell it for the same money makes no sense. Why bother for an even trade? He believes in the value of the brand and that there's an existing market for the product. There's more money to be made in BlackBerry done right. Serious business types and the like don't get excited about i-phones and galaxy. I think he's gonna cater to the market and not try to please shareholders by mimicking apple. This guy Prem is definitely the guy to do it - he's known for it and he's Canadian. I'm very hopeful.

You do realize that Fairfax is an insurance company, right? I'm all for optimism, but let's be realistic here. It isn't likely that an insurance company purchased a hardware/software company because they want to enter into that space and think they can bring value. Additionally, in terms of ROI, buying a company in bulk for the value of it's current assets usually means that they can sell the assets individually for more than they paid. Similar to buying a box of candy bars and then selling each candy bar individually. Not a perfect comparison, but the point is the same. Segmenting off BBRY and then selling patents, real estate, BBM, etc. individually brings value to the private investor.

Posted via CB10

[wojciechp]

You do realize that Fairfax is an insurance company, right? I'm all for optimism, but let's be realistic here. It isn't likely that an insurance company purchased a hardware/software company because they want to enter into that space and think they can bring value. Additionally, in terms of ROI, buying a company in bulk for the value of it's current assets usually means that they can sell the assets individually for more than they paid. Similar to buying a box of candy bars and then selling each candy bar individually. Not a perfect comparison, but the point is the same. Segmenting off BBRY and then selling patents, real estate, BBM, etc. individually brings value to the private investor.

Posted via CB10

I believe some people are just delusional by thinking that Prem Watsa is going to keep this company as is. Don't forget, his investment is currently under water as he averages out at $17/share. He will need to make some money back and this will definitely include selling parts of the company and most likely if and when BBM becomes cross-platform profitable he will want to spin it off as new public company.

Additionally, Mike Lazaridis is not part of Fairfax consortium that made a bid for BB. He is on his own search for partners to make a separate bid.

[Danny Ocean]

I believe some people are just delusional by thinking that Prem Watsa is going to keep this company as is. Don't forget, his investment is currently under water as he averages out at $17/share. He will need to make some money back and this will definitely include selling parts of the company and most likely if and when BBM becomes cross-platform profitable he will want to spin it off as new public company.

Additionally, Mike Lazaridis is not part of Fairfax consortium that made a bid for BB. He is on his own search for partners to make a separate bid.

I agree 100%. I mean it really seems very clear cut to me. Insurance companies are about the most risk averse investment entities out there. In the absence of some yet unreleased information, it is virtually unthinkable that they would risk this kind of $$ on a long shot turnaround proposition versus parceling off the company and taking their returns. Let's keep in mind that in the technology sector your patents (of which BBRY currently has over 5000) lose value every quarter. Some expire, some become absolete.

Posted via CB10

[offyoutoddle]

his statement included words like an immediate return on investment or something like that iirc. I would imagine that means a fairly specific course of action is planned, and sticking to the current strategy is totally unlikely. My guess would be selling of at least some patents.

[sinnar]

I have this feeling they will continue business as normal. I remember somewhat when fairfax purchased theyre 10 percent stake and it was near 30/share. I suspect the recent news is in an attempt to bring them back and recoup the billions that could be lost if they didnt do something.

Posted via Blackberry Q10

[Ryan Scott5]

I can see it. This phone has plenty of potential. BlackBerry has to listen To the users though

Posted via CB10

[sinnar]

I love my q10. I originally bought a z10 cuz i couldnt wait but ended switching back to the keyboard. Ive had a 8830 9700 9900 z10 and now q10. The q10 is the best ive used so far even tho its still missing some of the more basic function. Im confident they will get them all in there soon enough!

Posted via Blackberry Q10

[IgotsThis]

It would be great if Fairfax could wave a magic wand and bring BlackBerry back to its former glory, but that's highly unlikely to happen. Very few individuals are buying BB10 devices, and even fewer companies are deploying BB10 infrastructure.

The one and only reason Fairfax made the offer to buyout the company is for a return on investment. If BlackBerry hasn't been able to make BB10 into a success so far, being taken over by a financial firm is not going to help. If the best return on investment is realized by chopping up the company and selling off the patents and software components that are profitable, then that's exactly what will happen.

My advice is to enjoy the frequent OS updates and apps that are currently available. A year from now I expect these handsets to be pretty much abandoned by what remains of BB, and fewer and fewer apps made available by third parties.

Hopefully I'll be proven wrong, since I'm stuck on contract with a Q10 for another 18 months, but my outlook is not nearly as bright as the OP's.

Fewer companies are deploying bb10 infrastructure? Last time I checked about 25000 companies worldwide have BES installed, not to mention government corporations, and others waiting to upgrade to BlackBerry10 including Barclays premier League, in fact Polar S.A the leading food and beverage company for Venezuela has just upgraded to BES 10.1 today. To say BES is a fail would be a lie, that's their strength. We will see what happens.

BBM channels: c00121c99 for some knowledge and c00123fca for some real hip hop

[FairlightRacing]

For those who say they are simply going to chop up the company and sell it: how much do you think BlackBerry is worth in pieces? If it's so easy to just chop it up and make a huge profit there would be other bidders. In order for him to earn a return on his investment Mr. Watsa is going to need to take over the company and reorganize it for future growth. The only way he makes his money back is to bring the company back. There will be blood, but he will not kill off all the product lines and liquidate the patents and other assets as that will not work to achieve a profit.

[IgotsThis]

For those who say they are simply going to chop up the company and sell it: how much do you think BlackBerry is worth in pieces? If it's so easy to just chop it up and make a huge profit there would be other bidders. In order for him to earn a return on his investment Mr. Watsa is going to need to take over the company and reorganize it for future growth. The only way he makes his money back is to bring the company back. There will be blood, but he will not kill off all the product lines and liquidate the patents and other assets as that will not work to achieve a profit.

There's still a demand for BlackBerry phones, regardless if it's only for a small niche, they can still produce hardware WITHOUT over producing like they did with the Z10, that was the main problem.

BBM channels: c00121c99 for some knowledge and c00123fca for some real hip hop

[trwrt]

...an outstanding new operating system developed by QNX...

I'm probably reading too much into this, but it's curious that nothing he said explicitly relates to BB10. Even the snippet above could conceivably be referring to the Neutrino platform.

Isn't it sad that we live in a world where we inevitably learn to parse things like this? People should just say what they mean...

[Supa_Fly1]

I can see it. This phone has plenty of potential. BlackBerry has to listen To the users though

Posted via CB10

Have you ever thought that is part of the problem?! The majority of users, those that BlackBerry was counting on to help the sales of the bb10 platform, never bought in because they consistently wanted to hang on to every last feature of the legacy devices even after official announcement to start from scratch because.the old code caused nothing but issues - including stability.

Posted via CB10

[Qaddafi]

I thought BlackBerry was still popular world wide, just not as much in the USA. They control like 1 percent of the market, but that's still not that bad when every damn person in this country has a cell phone now.

[Concession]

OP, I really hope you're right. This privatisation will lead to a better, intact, BlackBerry but I have a feeling Prem Watsa will not be BlackBerry's saviour. He'll be the executioner.

[Danny Ocean]

OP, I really hope you're right. This privatisation will lead to a better, intact, BlackBerry but I have a feeling Prem Watsa will not be BlackBerry's saviour. He'll be the executioner.

My sentiments exactly. Well said.

Posted via CB10