黑莓命運堪憂 加拿大財團47億美元收歸私有

BlackBerry has agreed to be bought by a consortium of Canadian investment companies for $4.7bn in cash and taken private, in a last-ditch move to ensure the survival of one of the pioneers of the global smartphone industry.

黑莓(BlackBerry)同意以47億美元的現金價格被加拿大投資企業組成的一家財團收歸私有。這一孤注一擲之舉旨在保證這家全球智能手機行業的先驅得以生存。

BlackBerry, whose handheld devices were nicknamed “CrackBerrys” because of their ubiquity in the suit pockets of the world’s business and political elite, has seen its market value plummet from a peak of $83bn in 2008 to just $4.2bn ahead of the announcement yesterday.

黑莓手持設備有“癮莓”(CrackBerry)的暱稱，因爲在全球商界和政界精英的西裝口袋中，黑莓的身影無所不在。在昨日宣佈上述消息之前，其市值已經從2008年巔峯時的830億美元跌至區區42億美元。

The bid comes in the wake of BlackBerry’s admission on Friday that its turnround strategy – based on the launch of a new operating system and handsets – had failed and that it would abandon the consumer market with the loss of 4,500 jobs and report a $1bn operating loss in the latest quarter.

這家財團出價購買之前，上週五黑莓承認，其基於新版操作系統和手機的扭轉戰略失敗了，該公司將放棄消費者市場，裁減4500個職位，並報告上季度運營損失達10億美元。

The consortium is led by Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings, which holds a 10 per cent stake in the Ontario-based company. Mr Watsa, an investor who has been described as Canada’s Warren Buffett, resigned from BlackBerry’s board last month when the company announced that it had set up a special committee to investigate its strategic options.

這家財團由普雷姆•沃察(Prem Watsa)的Fairfax Financial Holdings牽頭。該公司持有總部位於加拿大安大略省的黑莓公司10%的股份。沃察是一名投資人，有加拿大的沃倫•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)之稱。他在上月辭去黑莓董事會職位，當時黑莓宣佈已經組建了一個特別委員會來調查其戰略選擇。

His move was widely interpreted at the time as indicating that he would try to pull together a consortium including some of Canada’s leading pension funds to buy out the struggling company, once the adornment of the Canadian technology sector.

沃察當時的舉動被普遍解讀爲，他將嘗試整合一家包括加拿大領先的養老金基金的財團，收購陷入困境的黑莓。黑莓曾是加拿大科技行業的象徵。

BlackBerry’s shares, which fell a further 5 per cent in trading yesterday after dropping 17 per cent on Friday when the company pre-announced its quarterly results, were suspended at $8.26 ahead of the announcement that the company had signed a Letter of Intent with a consortium led by Fairfax.

上週五黑莓預告了其季度業績以後，股價下跌17%，昨日盤中再跌5%。在宣佈公司已經與Fairfax牽頭的財團簽訂了一項意向書之前，黑莓股票停盤，停盤價8.26美元。