Canadian smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry Ltd. gave preliminary consent in principle to the proposed sale of the company to a group of investors led by insurer Fairfax Financial. The amount of the transaction, as a result of which the former Research-in-Motion (RIM) will leave the market and become private, will be $4.7 billion. Trading in BlackBerry shares on NASDAQ has been suspended.

The offer stipulates that buyers will purchase all outstanding securities except those already owned by Fairfax. The cost of one share under the offer is set at $9. The price of securities on the stock exchange before the cessation of trading was $8.23. On Monday morning, shares were trading above $8.8. Thus, the premium to the market in Fairfax's proposal is negligible. The buyer is willing to pay in cash, The Wall Street Journal reports .

Chairman of the Board of Directors of BlackBerry Barbara Steamest noted that the company is open to other proposals until November 4. If the terms of alternative offers turn out to be more favorable, the deal with Fairfax may not take place.

The Canadian insurer is one of BlackBerry's largest shareholders. The company owns about 10% of the smartphone maker's shares. Fairfax's founder, well-known investor Prem Watsa, whom the press calls "Canada's Warren Buffett," resigned from the board of directors of Blackberry a month ago to avoid a conflict of interest.

BlackBerry, known as RIM until January 2013, was founded in 1999. The company remained the leader in the smartphone market until 2007, when Apple Inc. released the iPhone. At its peak, in 2008, the capitalization of the Canadian manufacturer was $83 billion (on Monday - only $4.2 billion).

Earlier this year, BlackBerry made another attempt to overcome the crisis. The company changed its name and presented a new line of smartphones. But this did not help: in August, the manufacturer officially announced that it was studying “alternative” business development strategies and, among other things, did not rule out the sale of 100% of the shares.

On September 20, BlackBerry reported that losses for the latest quarter were projected at $1 billion. The company also announced its intention to lay off 4,500 employees by the end of the year. Shares reacted to this news with a collapse of 17% (since the beginning of the year, shares have fallen in price by 30%).

Despite the failures of recent years, BlackBerry still has $2.5 billion in cash on its books. These company funds should be enough to implement priority unpopular anti-crisis measures.

BlackBerry to be sold for $4.7 billion