When BlackBerry’s leadership
said Monday that it was exploring a
potential sale of the company it
also announced that its largest shareholder, Prem Watsa,
the chairman and chief of Fairfax Financial, had resigned from its board. The
reason? “Potential conflicts.”
One in particular.
Watsa himself is interested in
taking BlackBerry private. Sources familiar with the matter tell AllThingsD that Watsa, whose firm holds a 9.9
percent stake in BlackBerry, has recently been reaching out to private equity
firms, gauging their interest in participating in a buyout of the company.
Watsa’s efforts,
which were first reported
by The Globe and Mail earlier today, are still in their preliminary
stages and it’s not yet clear who in private equity he has approached or who
might be interested in his proposal.
One firm that’s
almost certainly not interested: Silver Lake Partners, which held talks with
BlackBerry about taking the company private in late 2011/early 2012. Sources
close to the firm, which is currently
working with Michael Dell to
take the PC maker that bears his name private in a $24.8 billion deal, said it
has no interest in working with Watsa or BlackBerry at this time.
SOURCE:All thingsD
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