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BlackBerry Announces $1B Investment Completion with Fairfax

Things are beginning to shift around the BlackBerry Corporation, and the company’s most recent merger and acquisition is to be accredited for the deft changes.

In a brief press release on Wednesday, BlackBerry announced the completion of its United States investment.

Under the new investment plan, BlackBerry privately placed $1 billion in convertible debentures to its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, and a number of other institutional investors.

While the initial plans entailed that the company would aim for a full or partial sale, the concept was soon abandoned, and replaced with another executive decision. At the same time BlackBerry decided to denounce the interest to sell, it was announced that company CEO Thorsten Heins had been terminated. Heins was replaced with John Chen.

Chen took to the BlackBerry blog site to give a formal introduction to consumers. He also touched on the company’s most recent dealings with Fairfax and the future of BlackBerry. The deal also states that the investors also have the option to purchase an additional maximum of $250 million from the principal amount of additional debentures over the next 30 days.

“I am excited to be joining this iconic brand at such an important moment in its history. I look forward to leading the company through a successful transformation and restoring BlackBerry’s position as an innovative, successful company. I believe in the value of this brand and am confident we will rebuild BlackBerry for the benefit of all of our constituencies,” said Chen.

“As you know, this is a time of significant change at BlackBerry as we accelerate our efforts to transform our business,” Chen wrote on the BlackBerry blog site. “I know there has been a lot said about BlackBerry, but let me remind you that at BlackBerry, we are not dwelling on the past. We are looking towards the future.”

https://twitter.com/BlackBerryNews/statuses/400648110923214848
Image(s) via  The Official BlackBerry Blog | John Chen   Wikimedia Commons | BlackBerry Ltd.  Twitter | BlackBerry