BlackBerry made for easy pickings.
The once iconic mobile-phone maker struck a $4.7 billion deal to sell itself to a Canadian investor consortium led by Prem Watsa, aka the Canadian Warren Buffett.
The fire-sale price of $9 a share was far under where the sagging stock has been trading.
Analysts noted that BlackBerry shares were worth $12.32 on average over the past six months and $10.32 when averaged over the past month.
At its peak in 2007, BlackBerry shares topped $250.
The offer from Fairfax Financial Holdings, which already owns 10 percent of BlackBerry, is far from a done deal.
Fairfax still needs to secure financing for the deal and other buyers — however unlikely — can still make a counteroffer. BlackBerry has to pay Fairfax a termination fee of at least 30 cents a share if another bidder comes along.
BlackBerry, which has failed in its turnaround efforts under CEO Thorsten Heins, who took over less than two years ago, braced Wall Street for the low bid by pre-announcing poor quarterly results last week.
In 2009, BlackBerrys accounted for more than 40 percent of the US smartphone market, but now they barely register on the charts.
The Toronto-based company plans to lay off roughly 4,500 employees and predicted a net operating loss of as much as $1 billion after its latest phones — the Z10 and Q10 — failed to sell.
Carriers have stopped stocking the phones, and companies, which used to outfit employees with the devices, have abandoned the company in droves.
Businesses have stopped committing to BlackBerry because they have been concerned it won’t be around for continued service.
Any deal could at least help restore some certainty about the company’s future, analysts said.
Fairfax said it intends to keep the company intact rather than sell off its parts.