CANADIAN BUFFETT

Watsa stepped down from the BlackBerry board of directors in August, citing a potential conflict of interest, as the company said it was exploring a sale.

Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper quoted Watsa as saying that a significant amount of the equity in the deal will come from within the country. The consortium included neither strategic players, nor other technology firms, he said.

BlackBerry's recent challenging years have been in stark contrast to the rapid growth it previously enjoyed.

The Z10 touchscreen device that the company hoped would claw back market share from the iPhone thudded badly at launch in January, and it has lost ground even in emerging markets where it had carved out an important role.

A spokeswoman for phone company MTN Nigeria, for example, said that while BlackBerrys are still very relevant in Nigeria, "the adoption rate has declined significantly from a year ago due to lack of newer low to mid-end smart phone models." In Brazil, locally made iPhones are the first choice for government workers. "I have never seen a Brazilian government employee using a BlackBerry," said one government source.

And while some US government agencies still use only the BlackBerry, others allow devices like iPhones as well.

The American Lawyer surveyed 83 of the top 200 US law firms in November 2012 and found that 90 percent of them expected to see a drop-off in the number of Blackberry devices.

John Sroko, chief information officer at Duane Morris, said that three years ago the firm only offered BlackBerry devices because they were deemed most secure. But in recent years, the firm has allowed their lawyers to use other devices too.

"People like Blackberry for the keyboard and email," he said. "The switch was caused by a better browsing experience and the apps."

NOBODY ELSE

Donald Yacktman, president and founder of Yacktman Asset Management which holds something under 1 percent of BlackBerry according to Thomson Reuters data, said he does not expect a counteroffer to emerge.

"This is pretty much Plan B. They've clearly not hit the targets," he said.

Jack Gold, principal analyst and founder of J. Gold Associates, said "this is probably the best possible outcome of several unattractive options for BlackBerry."

"Going private and potentially bringing back the founder of the company, Mike Lazaridis (as has been rumored) could buy them some time to put the house in order," he noted.

Lazaridis, BlackBerry's co-CEO until early 2012 and a board member until March, did not respond to requests for comment.

On Friday, BlackBerry said it would step back from the hypercompetitive consumer market and focus on what it calls enterprise customers - businesses, governments, legal firms and security forces.

The company warned it would report revenue on the sale of just 3.7 million of its phones for the entire second quarter, and write down almost $1 billion.

By contrast, Apple sold 9 million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c models in three days after their Friday launch.

A Defense Department official said the Pentagon had more than 600,000 mobile devices in use in spring, including 470,000 BlackBerrys, 41,000 devices with Apple operating systems and 8,700 smart phones with Android systems.

"We are moving towards a secure mobile communications infrastructure that supports a variety of devices," the official said.

Blackberry has rarely traded below $9 a share even in recent years when it issued profit warnings, slashed jobs and launched devices that arrived late to disinterested audiences.

In the past 12 months the stock has risen as high as $18.32 and fallen as low as $6.22 on the Nasdaq.

BDT & Company, LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets are acting as financial advisors, and Shearman & Sterling LLP and McCarthy Tétrault LLP are acting as legal advisors to Fairfax in connection with the transaction.