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Mike Lazaridis reportedly working with Qualcomm, Cerberus Capital on BlackBerry buyout

Mike Lazaridis reportedly working with Qualcomm, Cerberus Capital on BlackBerry buyout

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Despite the fact that Canadian investment firm Fairfax Financial recently put in a $4.7 billion buyout offer for BlackBerry, the struggling mobile phone maker is still receiving interest from a number of sources. Today, a report from The Wall Street Journal claims that Cerberus Capital Management has put together a joint bid for the company with two of its co-founders: former CEO Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. Both Lazaridis and Fregin have previously been linked to a potential buyout bit in recent week — Lazaridis was first said to be considering a bid back in late September, and more recently an SEC filing hinted at a potential acquisition of all the shares not already owned by both the ex-CEO as well as Fregin.

If this new group is going to get a bid together, they'll have to do it fast — this coming Monday marks the deadline for others besides Fairfax to put in offers for BlackBerry. But the bid from Lazaridis, Fregin, and Cerberus isn't the only one that might come in at the last minute — former Apple CEO John Sculley has also been linked to a potential buyout in recent weeks. If one of these potential alternate bids is to become official, we should find out within the next few days.

Update: The Wall Street Journal has since updated its story to indicate that Qualcomm could be joining in with the potential Cerberus / Lazaridis / Fregin partnership in an attempt to take control of BlackBerry.