BlackBerry’s deal to sell remaining patents related to its defunct mobile business to a specialist IP company hit the rocks, as the former handset heavyweight announced it was exploring other alternatives due to financing issues.

In a statement, BlackBerry explained the deal was not completely dead in the water as the IP company in question, Catapult, continued to work on securing the financing required to complete the $600 million sale.

However, it added it was no longer “under exclusivity with Catapult and, given the length of time that the transaction has taken”, BlackBerry was exploring alternative options in parallel.

BlackBerry was set to receive $450 million from the sale, first announced at the start of 2022, of its patent assets which are related to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking.

It had expected the deal to close by the end of first quarter of fiscal 2023, subject to closing conditions.

Blackberry’s patent sale is a move towards laying its once highly successful mobile device business to rest, which it quit in 2016 to adopt a licensing model. Since then, Blackberry’s business has revolved around enterprise software, particularly security products.