In what looks to be another indication of waning support for BlackBery, its co-founder Mike Lazaridis has cut his stake in the company from 8% to 4.99%. This, after walking away from exploring a financial bid for the troubled smartphone maker.
Co-founders Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin in October disclosed in a regulatory filing disclosing they were mulling a bid to buy the company. The founding duo had partnered with private equity firm Cerberus Capital and mobile chip giant Qualcomm to consider the bid, but sources at the time said the board did not deem the consortium to have a solid proposal with enough financing in place.
BlackBerry abandoned its plan to sell itself last month after a two-month review of strategic options and talks with potential buyers - including Facebook, Lenovo and .
At the same time, the former darling of the smartphone world said its CEO, Thorsten Heins, was stepping down - a move that sparked a 16% dive in BlackBerry's share price and raised fears the company was running out of options.
BlackBerry named John Chen, credited with turning around Sybase in the late 1990s, as its interim CEO and executive chairman. Sybase, an enterprise software company, was eventually acquired by SAP AG in 2010.
Still fighting
While BlackBerry may be one of the most notable casualties of the smartphone war - now led by tech goliaths Apple and Samsung - the company has made it clear it is not about to give up the fight.
Leveraging among other strengths its popular instant messaging platform - BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) - as well as its enterprise offering, which has gained decent momentum of late, and its strong African base; BlackBerry is confident it will be able to up its game and emerge as a formidable competitor once again.
Two months ago the Canadian smartphone maker announced its 2014 smartphone portfolio would transition from six devices to four. The future portfolio will include two high-end devices and two mid-range devices.
While sales figures this year for the company's new BlackBerry 10 devices released since the revamped OS was unveiled at the end of January have been uninspiring, BlackBerry's enterprise side has seen significant success. The company recently said installations of BlackBerry Enterprise Servers had gone from 19 000 to 25 000 in the last quarter.
BlackBerry's new Johannesburg-based MD for Africa, Yudi Moodley, says 2014 will be the year BlackBerry's roadmap will be realised - and the year the company needs to execute on its plans. While he could not give too much away, Moodley told ITWeb the roadmap will be largely focused BBM, the enterprise, the company's QNX operating system - upon which BlackBerry 10 is based - and the launch of new devices.
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