BlackBerry Shares Trading Lower

BlackBerry ($BB@Canada) is trading lower today after the company announced it agreed to sell its legacy patents for $600 million. BlackBerry entered into the patent sales agreement with Catapult IP Innovation and agreed to sell substantially all of its non-core patent assets to Catapult. Patents that are essential to BlackBerry’s current core business operations will be excluded from the transaction. Completion of the transaction could take up to 210 days. At closing, BlackBerry will receive $450 million in cash and a promissory note in the principal amount of $150 million. Once known for being the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer, BlackBerry is now a software provider offering end-to-end secure communication for enterprises. BlackBerry has traded as low as almost $7 and as high as $22.50 over a 52-week period. The stock was down more than 6% at $7.38 this morning.