BlackBerry head says company is 'very much alive'
TORONTO - BlackBerry's (BBRY) interim chief executive said Monday reports of the death of the company "are greatly exaggerated."
Former Sybase CEO John Chen said in a
letter to customers that BlackBerry is returning to its roots, refocusing on
delivering devices and services to business users.
Chen was brought in as the interim
chief executive and executive chair after talks to sell the company collapsed
last month.
He said in the letter that the company
is aware that "BlackBerry is not for everyone."
Blackberry quickly lost dominance as
the leading smartphone maker after the 2007 launch of Apple's touchscreen
iPhone.
Chen notes that competitors are
circling but that BlackBerry is "very much alive, thank you."
Chen said BlackBerry has substantial
cash and said he'll refocus the company on four areas, including the handset
business. Chen put more emphasis on BlackBerry's mobile device management
business, which allows IT departments to manage different devices connected to
their corporate networks. He also emphasized BlackBerry's popular BlackBerry
Messenger application. And he mentioned embedded QNX software systems, which
are used in-vehicle infotainment systems and industrial machines.
BGC analyst Colin Gillis said a letter
meant to reassure customers is needed. The much-hyped BlackBerry 10 system, its
latest phones, flopped. The company disclosed in September that it would book
nearly a billion dollars in losses related to unsold phones and the company
announced last month it was no longer for sale.
"They are being targeted pretty
heavily. Their customers are up for grabs," Gillis said.
Focusing on business users is probably
the only move Blackberry has left, Gillis said.
"It's a much smaller business.
This is the niche player. You can build phones for those people in that niche.
You can have a decent little business," Gillis said. "Enterprise
customers who like keyboards. There's not really a good keyboard device out
there. Some people like keyboards. I personally don't love typing on
glass."
Gillis said he expects Chen to name
himself CEO soon because he's not acting like an interim CEO. "He's
signing all this stuff as CEO," Gillis said.
Shares of BlackBerry rose 4 cents to
$6.37 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq.
The decline of the BlackBerry has come
shockingly fast. The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, changed the culture by
allowing on-the-go business people to access wireless email. Then came a new
generation of competing smartphones, and suddenly the BlackBerry looked
ancient. Apple debuted the iPhone in 2007 and showed that phones can handle
much more than email and phone calls. In the years since, BlackBerry been
hammered by competition from the iPhone as well as Android-based rivals.
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