$1B investment in Blackberry might be a bid to control its bankruptcy

Fairfax Financial Holdings $4.7 billion takeover deal fell through, but Blackberry will receive a $1 billion investment consolation prize from the firm. However it might not be a smooth reboot for the Canadian smartphone maker. DealBook’s Steven M. Davidoff explains the investment this way:
“One way to look at this investment is that it positions Fairfax and the other investors for a BlackBerry bankruptcy. BlackBerry has no long-term debt on its balance sheet, so this investment would now jump Fairfax ahead of the equity line for controlling BlackBerry in any bankruptcy proceeding.”

Cell phone manufacturers prices have varied greatly. Google paid $12.5 billion (although the final number is disputed) for Motorola in 2012 and IBM paid $1 billion for Palm in 2010.