BlackBerry sold to Fairfax Financial for US $4.7 Billion

The die has been cast. The inevitable has happened. BlackBerry, once Canada's most valuable company and a pioneer of the highly competitive smartphone and mobile industry has been sold to Toronto-based FairFax Financial Holdings for US $4.7 billion or $9.00 a share.

The next step is to take BlackBerry private, move away from consumer end of the business and focus on prosumer and enterprise segment of the market.

The company also said Friday it plans to streamline it sproduct portfolio,  focus on offering only two high-end devices and two entry-level handsets going forward, with emphasis on the business market.

Trading of the company’s stock was halted last Friday. BlackBerry shares plummeted after the company announced Friday a loss of nearly $1 billion and layoffs of 4,500 workers. An attempt to introduce its once dominant BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) service to rival iPhone and Android devices this past weekend, was halted as well because a leaked version of the app was apparently causing problems. Stay tuned for more developments.