BlackBerry rescue tycoon's latest test
Prem Watsa is taking a Buffett-style long-term view on the US$4.7 billion bid led by Fairfax Financial for the troubled smartphone maker
Speculation that Prem Watsa, the man some call Canada's Warren Buffett, would launch a bid for BlackBerry started to swirl as soon as he stepped down from the troubled smartphone maker's board last month.
Six weeks later, he has delivered, beginning a rescue project he once said could take four or five years.
Just over a year ago, Watsa said BlackBerry was a "Canadian success story", a good buy and a likely turnaround story even though its market share was tumbling.
BlackBerry's fortunes have only deteriorated since then, with the latest blow coming last Friday, when it said it would cut more than a third of its workforce as it retreats from the consumer market in favour of its traditional strength - serving businesses and governments.
But Watsa, the chief executive of Fairfax Financial, the top BlackBerry shareholder, is an old hand at looking wrong today and right tomorrow.
On Monday, BlackBerry said it had agreed to be acquired by a consortium led by Fairfax for US$4.7 billion, a move observers said could allow the company to put its house in order out of the public eye.
Fairfax, both an insurance holding company and Watsa's investment vehicle, was on the losing end of bets against the market in the mid-2000s as Watsa waited for the mortgage industry in the United States to collapse.