VENTURE CAPITAL POST

BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis has cut his stake in the smartphone company. The stake sale is valued at $26 million, according to The Spec.

According to documents filed with US regulators, a numbered company controlled by Lazaridis and registered in Ontario has exited 3.5 million shares in BlackBerry since Monday. The two deals bring his stake in the Waterloo-based firm to below 5%. This is below the threshold where he would be required to report to the regulators any future share sales in the company, the report detailed.

Back in October, BlackBerry was still on the lookout for potential buyers. Plans to sell the firm were eventually dropped when Fairfax Financial, among BlackBerry's biggest shareholders, planned to raise $1 billion in a last-ditch hope to revive the struggling company. In October, the numbered company was part of a joint bid by Lazaridis and co-founder Doug Fregin to acquire BlackBerry, The Spec reported.

Along with the stake sale, Lazaridis has also recently abandoned the joint bid with Fregin to purchase the Canadian smartphone maker, as previously reported by the International Venture Capital Post.