BlackBerry has decided not to sell itself and is instead raising $1 billion and replacing CEO Thorsten Heins with John S. Chen, the previous CEO of SAP company Sybase.
BlackBerry, which had until Nov. 4 to agree to an acquisition by Fairfax Financial Holdings for$4.7 billion, is instead seeking to raise about $1 billion by selling convertible notes to a group of investors including Fairfax, according to a press release from the company. The transaction is expected to be completed within the next two weeks.
Chen served as CEO of Sybase since 1998. SAP acquired Sybase in 2010.
Reps from BlackBerry could not be reached for comment on the report. The company’s stock was down more than 18% in premarket trading following the announcement.