John Chen seems to have a plan to lengthen the runway he has to get BlackBerry back up off the floor. BlackBerry announced today that they plan on offering up the majority of its commercial real estate portfolio with over 3 million square feet of space for sale. The deals are mostly a combination of sale-leaseback and vacant asset sales. The CEO went on to say that:
"BlackBerry remains committed to being headquartered in Waterloo and having a strong presence in Canada along with other global hubs," said BlackBerry CEO and Executive Chair, John Chen. "This initiative will further enhance BlackBerry’s financial flexibility, and will provide additional resources to support our operations as our business continues to evolve."
Here are the details:
January 21, 2014
BlackBerry Announces Plans to Divest Canadian Real Estate Holdings
WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Jan. 21, 2014) – BlackBerry(R) Limited (NASDAQ:BBRY)(TSX:BB), a world leader in mobile communications, today announced that it intends to divest the majority of its real estate holdings in Canada.
In partnership with CBRE Limited, BlackBerry intends to strategically divest the majority of its commercial real estate portfolio through a combination of sale-leaseback and vacant asset sales. The properties to be offered for sale comprise over 3 million square feet of space.
"BlackBerry remains committed to being headquartered in Waterloo and having a strong presence in Canada along with other global hubs," said BlackBerry CEO and Executive Chair, John Chen. "This initiative will further enhance BlackBerry’s financial flexibility, and will provide additional resources to support our operations as our business continues to evolve."
BlackBerry will not comment on the potential value of a sale and will disclose further information as required in connection with any definitive sale transaction.
For more information on the sale of these properties, contact CBRE Limited.
