New head to reboot BlackBerry

BlackBerry was just about to press the shut down button but it looks like they might instead click on the restart mode.

John Chen who has been named as executive chairman of BlackBerry is all set to replace Thorsten Heins. Fairfax, which wanted to buy out BlackBerry for $4.7 billion, has just pumped in $1 billion and there are also reports of a new handset launch as BlackBerry plans to draw a new course for survival.


In an interview to Reuters, Chen has said he has no plans to close down the handset business and says he has plans to turnaround the company.
https://in.reuters.com/article/2013/11/05/blackberry-offer-john-cen-idINDEE9A400B20131105

"I know we have enough ingredients to build a long-term sustainable business," Chen said in a telephone interview with Reuters.

Chen, who was the CEO of Sybase, (https://www.sybase.com/) managed to lift the company from an operating loss of $98 million in 1998 to a $5.8 billion unit when it was sold to SAP in 2010.

"I have done this before and seen the same movie before," Chen is said to have told Reuters.

BlackBerry yesterday announced that it has entered into an agreement pursuant to which Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited 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. The transaction is expected to be completed within the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, there are reports that BlackBerry is gearing up to launch the Porsche Design version of the BlackBerry Z10.

A Vietnamese website tinhte.vn<https://tinhte.vn> (https://www.tinhte.vn/threads/tren-tay-may-mau-blackberry-10-porsche-design.2148368/) had earlier released the pictures of a prototype of the new design.

While the specs of the new phone would be similar to that of the BlackBerry Z10, reports claim the phone could be unveiled by the third week of November.

Images courtesy https://www.tinhte.vn