BlackBerry is up for sale and one party interested in potentially buying it may be none other than the company’s co-founders, Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. Documents filed with the SEC show that not only have Lazaridis and Fregin recently increased their stake in BlackBerry from 5.7 percent to 8 percent but they may also be considering a bid to acquire the beleaguered company.
The SEC Schedule 13D filing reveals that Lazaridis and Fregin have entered into an agreement “to explore the possibility of submitting a potential joint bid to acquire the Shares of the Issuer that they do not currently own.” There had been reports that Lazaridis was talking to some private equity firms earlier but none are mentioned in the filing and the two men appear to be considering this bid without any third party.
BlackBerry’s attempts to sell itself do not appear to be going well. It does have a potential bid from Fairfax Financial that would see the company go private in a US$4.7 billion deal but there is increasing doubt that Fairfax will be able to secure the necessary funding. Other companies, including Google, Cisco and SAP also appear interested but likely only in pieces rather than the entire company.
Lazaridis and Fregin founded Research In Motion (renamed to BlackBerry earlier this year) in 1984. While Fregin resigned in 2007, Lazaridis remained as co-CEO until January 22, 2012 when he and Jim Balsillie were replaced by Thorsten Heins.