BlackBerry has agreed to a $4.7 billion sale to a group led by its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., after new smartphones failed to turn the company around.

BlackBerry Ltd. said Monday that a letter of intent has been signed and that its shareholders will receive $9 in cash for each share. The deal comes just days after the Canadian company announced plans to lay off 40 percent of its global workforce.

The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, was once the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and other consumers. It could be so addictive that it was nicknamed "the CrackBerry." President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things."

But then came a new generation of competing smartphones, starting with Apple's iPhone in 2007. The BlackBerry, that game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness, looked ancient suddenly.

Although BlackBerry was once Canada's most valuable company with a market value of $83 billion in June 2008, the stock has plummeted from more than $140 a share to less than $9, giving it a market value of $4.6 billion, just short of Fairfax's offer.

Fairfax head Prem Watsa, who owns 10 percent of BlackBerry, stepped down as a board member because of potential conflicts when BlackBerry announced it was considering a sale last month. The company would no longer be traded publicly once the sale goes through.

"We believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry its customers, carriers and employees," Watsa said in a statement. "We can deliver immediate value to shareholders, while we continue the execution of a long-term strategy in a private company."

滬江商務(wù)英語(yǔ)快訊：黑莓公司近日發(fā)布公告稱(chēng)，已經(jīng)和以Fairfax Financial為首的聯(lián)合體簽訂收購(gòu)意向書(shū)，后者出價(jià)為每股9美元，略高于黑莓現(xiàn)在的股價(jià)(8.2美元)，總價(jià)為47億美元，從此黑莓將走向私有化。

作為加拿大最知名的品牌，黑莓曾是全球智能手機(jī)的霸主，用黑莓手機(jī)為身份象征，就連美國(guó)總統(tǒng)奧巴馬、脫口秀女王奧普拉都曾為黑莓“背書(shū)”。如今，黑莓繼摩托羅拉“委身”谷歌、諾基亞“聯(lián)姻”微軟之后，也走上了“賣(mài)身”的道路。希望這些曾經(jīng)的手機(jī)巨頭被收購(gòu)后能重整旗鼓，讓智能手機(jī)市場(chǎng)重新回到百花齊放的美好時(shí)代。