Co-founders ponder takeover
Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin look to get their company back
They were two childhood prodigies who built a tech empire together and now they are looking to take it back.
BlackBerry Ltd. founder Mike Lazaridis and his old friend and co-founder Douglas Fregin have filed paperwork with financial regulators that paves the way for a takeover bid for the embattled smartphone maker.
Sources say any offer from Lazaridis and Fregin would have no connection to the $4.7-billionUS takeover offer from Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. that was tentatively agreed to last month by BlackBerry’s board of directors.
The two men are considering a joint bid “with the goal of stabilizing and ultimately reinventing the company based on a plan developed by them,” according to documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
An offer from the co-founders would set up a potential bidding war for BlackBerry between two of the company’s largest individual shareholders. Together, Lazaridis and Fregin — who have both severed ties with the company — control about eight per cent of the Waterloo, Ont., company, less than the 10 per cent stake held by Fairfax.
For BlackBerry, the re-emergence of the company’s founders as potential bidders represents the latest chapter in a painful and drawn out downfall. The pioneer in the smartphone market has seen its star fade and its profits disappear in the face of devastating competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices running on Google Inc.’s Android software.
After BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins announced the company was examining “strategic alternatives” in late August, effectively putting the struggling company up for sale, no buyers emerged until Fairfax chairman and former BlackBerry board member Prem Watsa stepped up with a plan to purchase the company with a consortium of investors and take it private.
However, Fairfax has yet to name any of its partners, which has caused many observers to cast doubt on the deal. Meanwhile, several other technology companies — including Google Inc., SAP and Cisco — are rumoured to be interested in purchasing BlackBerry or some of its divisions. Several major Canadian public sector pension funds have been approached, but there is no indication any of them are considering a bid.
Fairfax president Paul Rivett declined to comment. A spokesman representing Lazaridis and Fregin said the two would not be commenting beyond the regulatory filing.
The former BlackBerry executives have hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Centerview Partners LLC to help study their options.