TORONTO (Reuters) - Embattled smartphone company BlackBerry Ltd plans to go private in a $4.7 billion deal being orchestrated by its largest shareholder. Here are important milestones in the history of the company formerly known as Research In Motion: February 1985 - Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin co-found Research In Motion in Waterloo, Ontario, the Canadian university city where Lazaridis studied. 1989 - RIM develops a network gateway called RIMGate, precursor to its BlackBerry Enterprise Server. 1992 - Jim Balsillie joins RIM as co-CEO, mortgaging his house and investing $250,000. ...

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