BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is shedding value this morning, as hopes of a takeover by Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited and the safety of privatization fade. The stock is down more than 10 percent in early trading following the news that instead of becoming a privately held corporation as Thorsten Heins intended, BlackBerry will instead find itself in the hands of entirely new leadership.

Instead of becoming privately owned by Fairfax Financial Holdings, the largest shareholder in the ailing smartphone company has found a group of private investors. Together with this unnamed group, Fairfax will be investing $1 billion into the Canadian phone manufacturer in an attempt to revive the once profitable giant. This investment will be facilitated through debentures which can be changed to common shares. The value of these shares is $10 each.

Fairfax Bid Failed To Spark Interest In Investors

The bid to purchase BlackBerry Ltd by Fairfax Financial Holdings has failed to spark any interest from investors since its first offering. The deal had BlackBerry valued at $9 per share, but the share price never actually reached the valuation set by Fairfax Financial Holdings. The overall value of the deal had BlackBerry valued at $4.7 billion, but the offer was never solidified into a true buying move.

Thorsten Heins To Be Replaced

CEO Thorsten Heins will be stepping down from his office and John S. Chen, the former CEO of Sybase, a software and data management company, will be stepping into the position on a interim basis. V. Prem Watsa, the CEO of Fairfax Financial Holdings will also be returning to the board at BlackBerry Ltd. This position had been relinquished by the high powered investor when BlackBerry had announced that it was considering options such as a sale last fall.

Thorsten Heins worked as an executive for Siemens prior to becoming the CEO of BlackBerry in January of 2012. He followed Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, who served as co-CEOs for quite some time. These two men resigned when it became obvious that BlackBerry Ltd was on a downhill slide and its PlayBook tablet computer failed to impress the market.

Heins’ Replacement

John Chen led Sybase in its climb from 1998 until 2010. In 2010 the company was purchased by SAP, a German company. Many investors believe that Mr. Chen saved Sybase from complete bankruptcy, as the company was struggling to compete with IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft in the corporate database business.

Chen resolved the issues associated with Sybase, including the allegations that its software was unreliable. He then grew the business to include application creation. The applications are mainly aimed at businesses and many of them are designed to manage wireless networks.

Following his stint at Sybase, Mr. Chen has worked as a senior advisor to Silver Lake Partners. This is the same Silver Lake that worked with Michael Dell to take Dell computers private.

BlackBerry Struggling

BlackBerry has struggled to compete with Apple Inc., Samsung Ltd, and other smartphone makers in recent years. The once dominant company is now barely able to keep its head above water. While several companies have shown some interest in acquiring BlackBerry, none have made any true move to make the acquisition happen.

Stock Information

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is currently trading at $6.88, which is $0.89 or 11.45 percent below its closing price on Friday.

Disclosure: Author represents that he has no position in any stocks mentioned in this article at the time this article was submitted.