“Distressed investing specialist” Cerberus Capital Management is set to look at BlackBerry’s books, although it is far from certain that this will lead to a firm offer, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said.

Apparently, Cerberus wants to sign a confidentiality agreement with BlackBerry, in order to gain access to confidential financial information, before deciding whether to press on with a bid.

The paper also said that “at least one” other distressed investment firm has been “sniffing around” BlackBerry, although it is not clear which or whether it is still interested.

Late last month, BlackBerry announced a $4.7 billion buyout by a consortium led by shareholder Fairfax Financial.

But as part of this deal, it has the option to shop around for alternative offers.

And since the Fairfax deal was announced, observers have raised certain issues, including the absence of other named partners, and a lack of clarity around the financing for the transaction.

Indeed, BlackBerry’s shares have been trading at below the $9 offered by Fairfax, indicating there is a belief the deal will not go through at the higher price.

In recent weeks, BlackBerry has announced poor quarterly results and issued a management discussion of its numbers which highlighted the challenges it is facing.

WSJ noted that Fairfax has until this week to deliver an initial draft of the BlackBerry merger agreement.