IIT-M graduate to buy BlackBerry for $4.7 bn

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New Delhi: IIT Madras graduate Prem Watsa- led Fairfax Financials has offered to buy out Canadian firm  Blackberry for $4.7 billion bringing the Indian origin  investor back on the global M&A scene.All eyes are on Watsa, who migrated to the North American  country in 1972, as to whether he will be able to conclude the  deal successfully and turn around the troubled smartphone  maker who has been hit hard by Apple and Samsung.Watsa, often called the Warren Buffet of Canada for his  unexpected, unorthodox buying moves and predictions, has been  at the helm of affairs at Fairfax Financial Holdings as its  Chairman and CEO since 1985 and has a track record for making  iconoclastic investment deals.In 1999, Fairfax and ICICI Bank formed a joint venture to  form ICICI Lombard GIC a leading private sector general  insurance firm in India with a Gross Written Premium (GWP) of  Rs 6,420 crore for the year ended March 31, 2013.Last year, his group purchased 77 per cent of the  publicly-listed Indian operations of Thomas Cook UK. Last night, following months of speculation of a buyout,  BlackBerry said it reached a tentative agreement for a $4.7  billion buyout by a group led by Watsa-led Fairfax -- its  biggest shareholder.Fairfax owns about 10 per cent of the  handset manufacturers common shares.About Fairfax and Watsa* Toronto-based Fairfax is a financial holding firm engaged  in property, casualty & life insurance and re-insurance,  investment management and insurance claims management. * Hyderabad-born Watsa, who earned a bachelor's in chemical  engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Madras  in 1971, moved to Ontario in 1972 where he earned his MBA  degree from the University of Western Ontario.* Beginning his professional career at Confederation Life  Insurance as vice-president of Confederation Life Investment  Counsel in 1974, Watsa left the firm in 1984 to join as vice  president of start-up firm GW Asset Management, where he  served for a year.* He co-founded Hamblin Watsa Investment Counsel (which was  acquired by Fairfax in 1991) in 1984. The following year,  Watsa took control of Markel Financial Holdings, which was  later re-named as Fairfax.* Watsa, who serves on Advisory Board of the Richard Ivey  School of Business, is also the Chancellor of University of  Waterloo, a Canadian city where BlackBerry is headquartered.  MORE PTI RNK  SA  09242111  * The Blackberry bid follows several high profile deals  done by the Watsa-led company.* In October 2012, Fairfax Financial Holdings acquired the  entire outstanding shares of London-based Brit Insurance for  about USD 300 million. The acquisition was carried out through  its subsidiary RiverStone.* In 2010, the Canadian insurer acquired Zenith National  Insurance, a workers compensation insurance specialist, for  about USD 1.3 billion in cash.* In May this year, Thomas Cook (India) Ltd acquired 77.3  per cent interest in IKYA Human Capital Solutions Pvt Ltd for  USD 46.8 (about Rs 256.32 crore).