BlackBerry calls off sale, spurring doubts and stock plunge

Through Euan Rocha and Allison Martell TORONTO (Reuters) – BlackBerry Ltd abandoned on Monday its plan to promote itself and said its CEO is stepping down, sparking a sixteen % dive in its share worth and elevating fears the struggling smartphone maker is working out of choices. After a two-month review of strategic options and talks with potential buyers that incorporated Fb, Lenovo and private fairness companies similar to Cerberus, BlackBerry said it’ll abandon a sale. As an alternative, it’ll raise $1 billion by means of issuing convertible notes to a bunch of long-term traders including its biggest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings. The one formal offer to buy BlackBerry – a tentative one – had come from Fairfax, which needed to take the corporate non-public for $4.7 billion.