The head of one of Canada's top pension funds confirmed on Thursday his firm was involved in talks over a potential takeover of BlackBerry Ltd but said he never saw a business plan he was confident would turn around the once-dominant smartphone maker. Leo de Bever, chief executive of the C$70 billion ($66.6 billion) Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCo), said all of Canada's biggest pension funds were involved in discussions over BlackBerry's fate earlier this year as it looked to sell itself following the unsuccessful launch of a new line of phones.However, de Bever said AIMCo was never presented with a business plan that would have justified an investment in the company that was at one-time a darling in the technology sector."You had six or seven entities darting in and out with various propositions," he told reporters. "But there was never a unified business plan to say 'Okay, this is what we need to do'."Blackberry earlier this month abandoned plans to take itself private after holding discussions with Microsoft Corp, Apple Inc, Google Inc and others.
Apple Inc. (Apple) designs, manufactures and markets mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players, and a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications. Shares of AAPL traded higher by 1.19% or $6.136/share to $521.14. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $385.10 and as high as $594.59. On average, 12238100 shares of AAPL exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 9324896.
Google Inc. (Google) is a global technology company. Shares of GOOG traded higher by 1.15% or $11.7599/share to $1034.07. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $658.00 and as high as $1048.74. On average, 1802770 shares of GOOG exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 1090405.
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