BlackBerry prepping for a $4.7B buyout by Fairfax Financial

BlackBerry is set to be bought by a consortium of investors headed by Fairfax Financial Holdings in a deal worth $4.7 billion, the telecommunications company announced.

The deal with Fairfax Holdings, who currently owns approximately 10 percent of BlackBerry's common shares, is slated to be finalized by Nov. 4 after six weeks of due diligence. Under the acquisition, BlackBerry shareholders will receive $9 per share in cash.

Earlier this week, BlackBerry revealed plans to lay off approximately 4,500 employees, after predicting a net operating loss of almost $1 billion for second quarter fiscal 2014. The company attributed the predicted loss to the poor performance of its BlackBerry Z10 smartphone.

The lay offs will see a 40 percent reduction in its global workforce of 7,000 employees, due BlackBerry's goals to achieve a 50 percent reduction in operating expenditures by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2015.

It also plans to reduce its future smartphone lineup from six devices to four, focusing on enterprise and consumer targeted devices. The lineup will including two high-end devices and two entry-level devices in touchscreen and physical keyboard models.