Fairfax Financial Holdings' intent to buyout Blackberry may just be what the latter needs before it's too late, but investors and analysts remained unimpressed.

"This deal is an excellent example of another great Canadian takeunder, as opposed to takeover," Chris King, portfolio manager at Morgan, Meighen and Associates, was quoted by Globe and Mail.

"If one were to take a cash per share value, a reasonable range of value for intellectual property, and that there is value in the BBM, and co-location of exchange servers in major companies, the offer value seems to be low. The deal is structured to allow for competing bids, so hopefully a strategic purchaser might emerge."

Blackberry's market cap was once $80B. Now it's proposing selling for $4.7B. Damn you, Innovator's Dilemma!

— Aaron Levie (@levie) September 24, 2013

@levie Nokia did even "better"

— George (@George_Balayan) September 24, 2013

On Monday, Blackberry received a "letter of intent agreement" from Fairfax Financial Holdings that it wants to buy the ailing Canadian handset maker. But the announcement failed to hurl positively among investors. As of Monday closing, the company's shares closed but unchanged from Friday at $9.08 in the Canadian bourse.

Goodbye Blackberry it's going private to try to save remnants of previous giant - in technology it's definitely innovate or die

— Ian Smith (@Iancfp) September 24, 2013

It remained unclear why Blackberry agreed to the proposal since Fairfax still needs to source out funds for its proposition. Although it owns 10 per cent of BlackBerry shares, with a value placed at $US470 million, it would need to seek out financing of $US1.6 billion even if it rolls over its own stake in the company.

Don't know whether a revolution has come to an end or it's a fresh start for #blackberry

— Alekh Khanna (@AlekhKhanna23) September 24, 2013

A financial holding company based in Toronto that owns a number of subsidiaries, Fairfax has six weeks to conduct due diligence on Blackberry.

"We believe this transaction will open an exciting new private chapter for BlackBerry, its customers, carriers and employees," Prem Watsa, founder, chairman, and chief executive of Fairfax, 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 with a focus on delivering superior and secure enterprise solutions to BlackBerry customers around the world."

$4.7b Blackberry offer is an example of best practice for distressed M&A, There are many distressed assets of all sizes to use same strategy

— Joel Cox (@joelcox_) September 24, 2013