TORONTO – Fairfax Financial is no longer offering to buy BlackBerry outright and BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins is leaving the company.
BlackBerry says Heins will be replaced on an interim basis by John Chen, who will also be the chairman of a revamped BlackBerry board.
The announcement comes as Fairfax drops a plan to buy BlackBerry outright at US$9 per share.
Instead, Fairfax is leading a group that will provide the smartphone company with US$1 billion of convertible debt.
News of the announcement sent BlackBerry shares plunging 18 per cent in premarket trade, trading at $6.33 U.S. a share on Nasdaq, after reports that the Fairfax deal to buy Blackberry was dead.