BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins will step down, as part of a deal that will see Fairfax Financial and other investors infusing $1 billion funds through debentures in the smartphone vendor.
John Chen, previously served as chairman and CEO of Sybase, will be the interim CEO and executive chair of BlackBerry’s Board of Directors, BlackBerry said on Monday.
The Ontario-based smartphone maker is looking for a new CEO.
Today’s development also indicates that Firefox could not generate funds to go ahead with its bid for buying BlackBerry for $4.7 billion.
Chen will look after BlackBerry during this turnaround time and will be responsible for the strategic direction, strategic relationships and organizational goals of BlackBerry.
The mobile industry was expecting the removal of Heins as he could not revive the company. During his tenure between January 2012 and October 2013 as the CEO, BlackBerry 10 OS and the recently launched smartphones — BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry Q10 and BlackBerry Q5 and BlackBerry Z30 — did not add significant market share.
BlackBerry, which requested its customers to stick to the phone company through a multi-country advt campaign, could not compete with Samsung, Apple, LG, Sony, Micromax, Huawei, ZTE, Nokia, etc. Its inability to bring out cost effective and innovative phones was one of the reasons for the current challenges.
The mobile industry is facing exodus of several CEOs. Recently, Nokia chief Stepen Elop has also decided to leave Nokia, as part of Nokia’s decision to sell its phone business to IT major Microsoft. HTC CEO is also relinquishing from its day-to-day duties to look after innovation.
Meanwhile, Fairfax Financial Holdings, which is the single largest investor in BlackBerry, and other institutional investors will invest in BlackBerry through a $1 billion private placement of convertible debentures. Fairfax has agreed to acquire $250 million principal amount of the Debentures.
Fairfax chairman Prem Watsa, who will be joining back to the board, will be appointed lead director and chair of the Compensation, Nomination and Governance Committee.
The investment and board changes are part of BlackBerry’s plan to review strategic alternatives previously announced on August 12, 2013.
Companies such as Intel, SAP, Qualcomm, Lenovo and Facebook are reported to be interested in BlackBerry. However, the company is yet to finalize a deal.
Baburajan K
[email protected]
