BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis won’t pursue bid for company

BlackBerry founder Mike Lazaridis has severely reduced his ownership stake in the company, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The information comes from a regulatory filing made public on Tuesday, in which Laziridis said he won’t pursue a bid to buy the company, and as a result had cut his stake to roughly 4.99 percent of the ailing Canadian smartphone maker.

The news should quiet rumors that Lazaridis might make a play to regain control of the company, rumors which had included buyers ranging from Facebook to Amazon. Together with BlackBerry’s recent cash infusion from Fairfax Financial Holdings, Lazaridis frank admission potentially brings that ownership drama to an end, setting the stage for a return to the company’s enterprise roots as proposed by CEO John Chen.