BlackBerry

More old regime BlackBerry executives fired

posted by Alan F. / Nov 25, 2013, 12:28 PM

More old regime BlackBerry executives fired

BlackBerry announced on Monday that it has let go a number of executives from the old regime. The executives leaving the beleaguered manufacturer include the company's CMO Frank Boulben. Also leaving Waterloo is Kristian Tear, the Company’s COO. In addition, Brian Bidulka is out as CFO, replaced by Sr. VP James Yersh. Bidulka will be kept on for the rest of the fiscal year as an adviser to CEO John Chen to help smooth out the transition. Also, Roger Martin has resigned his seat on the BlackBerry Board of Directors that he held since 2007.

New CEO John Chen took over for Thorsten Heins early this month when the company's privatization deal with its largest stockholder failed to get financing. BlackBerry settled for a $1 billion infusion via the sale of convertible debt. Chen said in a statement on Monday that BlackBerry still has a strong cash position. But as the new management group takes over, it is not unusual to see those associated with the failure of the previous regime lose their jobs.

"BlackBerry has a strong cash position and continues, by a significant margin, to be the top provider of trusted and secure mobile device management solutions to enterprise customers around the world. Building on this core strength, and in conjunction with these management changes, I will continue to align my senior management team and organizational structure, and refine the Company’s strategy to ensure we deliver the best devices, mobile security and device management through BES 10, provide multi-platform messaging solutions with BBM, and expand adoption of QNX embedded systems."-John Chen, CEO, BlackBerry

As we told you last week, BlackBerry's next earnings report is scheduled to be released on the morning of December 20th. Since the last report for the second quarter included a massive $930 million to $950 million write down of BlackBerry Z10 inventory, it should be interesting to see what BlackBerry reports for the period.

source: BlackBerry via ReadWrite, IntoMobile

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9 Comments

1. JakeLee

Posts: 1021; Member since: Nov 02, 2013

Shutting down the company ASAP will be the best for everyone.

posted on Nov 25, 2013, 12:56 PM 4

3. tatail

Posts: 261; Member since: Jan 08, 2010

Are you saying you will hire 5000+ employees when they lose their jobs?

posted on Nov 25, 2013, 2:08 PM 2

8. downphoenix

Posts: 3165; Member since: Jun 19, 2010

and where do you propose these high tech jobs will be filled at?

posted on Nov 25, 2013, 7:12 PM 0

2. Finalflash

Posts: 4063; Member since: Jul 23, 2013

I don't know why they keep going on and on about their strong cash position. Tell us something else that is good because your cash position won't be strong for long. Just because you have cash doesn't mean you will survive, bigger fish have fallen with bigger reserves. They need to update their followers with the direction of their company with an actual plan, not "we plan to live, and we have strong cash position".

posted on Nov 25, 2013, 1:49 PM 1

5. Droid_X_Doug

Posts: 5993; Member since: Dec 22, 2010

As you observe, without sales, the cash position dissolves with ongoing operating expenses. At least an attempt is being made to clear out the remnants of the old team who were so successful in driving the company into the ground. But net-net, BB is going to have to come up with a new business model. Otherwise, it is over.

posted on Nov 25, 2013, 2:49 PM 1

4. kennyblack_sd

Posts: 26; Member since: Nov 15, 2013

Hmmm, I believe things will get better after this tough decision. I still love my Q5 no matter what the report is on 20th of Dec. I will always stay true to my brand no matter how many bad news about BlackBerry on phoneArena