Smartphone maker BlackBerry has abandoned its bid to sell itself and is replacing its chief executive.

BlackBerry has agreed to sell itself for $4.7bn (€3.48bn) to a group led by its largest shareholder, Fairfax.

Fairfax Financial Holdings — which has seen its 2011 investment in Ireland’s biggest bank jump about 50% — is now focusing on Greece, betting that the worst has passed for the recession-battered nation.

Those distinguished former Bank of Ireland governors must be turning in their graves.