Fairfax Financial Holdings CEO Prem Watsa had insisted that he would not exit the deal with BlackBerry last week. Watsa said, "We've never renegotiated. Over 28 years our reputation is stellar on that front. We just don't do that."

After Watsa's statement, a 6% loss in BlackBerry's share price that placed the company in a tough spot, said a Reuters report. The reporters had covered the lack of enthusiasm in the market that made the deal appeared to reach a close end.

The Journal of Financial Economics had examined the role of media in acquisitions. This led to shedding light on the complexities of Watsa's bad press in the middle of falling share prices. According to researchers Baixiao Liu of Florida State University and John McConnell of Purdue University, any statement from a company's CEO reported in the New York Times, Dow Jones News Service and Wall Street Journal would cause negativity on an upcoming deal. The authors concluded that news reporting can be a means of good impact for corporate governance even when managers act in their interest.