BlackBerry Ltd. Chief Executive Officer John Chen has surprised skeptics and pleased investors by cutting costs and fueling a 56 percent surge in the smartphone maker’s stock.
Now he says his next priorities are ending losses in the hardware division and expanding instant messaging as he tries to turn around a company with falling sales and dwindling market share.
“I’ve got to get the devices business profitable, I’ve got to get the server business growing again, I’ve got to get BBM scaling,” Chen, 58, said last week in an interview during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. “I have my hands full with a number of things to do.”
Not that he hasn’t been busy so far. Since being named CEO in November, Chen has reached an agreement with Foxconn Technology Group (2354) to outsource smartphone production and shored up cash by deciding to sell much of BlackBerry’s Canadian real estate. He’s also won over skeptical shareholders in part with his candid assessment about what needs to be fixed at Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry.
Read also:
T-Mobile customers dumping Blackberry devices in trade-in program (Los Angeles Times)
BlackBerry chief gives turnaround 50-50 chance (CNET)
T-Mobile Discovers No One Wants A BlackBerry Anymore (TechCrunch)
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