So instead of stumping up $4.7 billion in its own and others' money to buy BlackBerry, taking all of the equity upside and downside and controlling the company, Fairfax will stump up $1 billion of its own and others' money -- only $250 million of its own -- to take a lot of the equity upside, little or none of the downside, and basically control the company. That is a much better deal for Fairfax: It gets most of the benefit of buying BlackBerry, with considerably less of the risk.
