Last Wednesday, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd CEO Prem Watsa said he is confident that the bid by the consortium he heads would be able to raise the necessary financial backing to be able to fund the USD4.7 billion bid for BlackBerry Ltd. In an interview, "We wouldn't put our name to such a high-profile deal if we didn't feel confident that at the end of the day that our due diligence would be fine and we'd be able to finance it."

The consortium's bid is at USD9 per share. It said that as a private entity, BlackBerry would have better chances for rehabilitation if it was a private entity. The company had pioneered mobile email communications but had steadily declined against new market leaders Apple and Samsung together with other cheaper brands.

When inquired about the movement of BlackBerry's share prices, "Short term these things fluctuate, there is speculation one way, there's speculation the other way. We never pay too much attention to the marketplace."

He further added, "BlackBerry is one of Canada's great success stories. There is no question it's fallen on hard times recently, but we have every confidence it will be successful again. We're putting a consortium together to make sure that that takes place."