The never-ending saga that is BlackBerry just continues to roll on, as the company’s new management is reported to have let go more top-level executives from the old regime. This comes after the troubled Waterloo company shook things up by letting CEO Thorsten Heins go for new boss John S. Chen.
The folks leaving BlackBerry will be COO Kristian Tear, CFO Brian Bidulka and CMO Frank Boulben. In addition to these three, the company also announced that board member Roger Martin will vacate the seat he has held since 2007 — which ironically, is the year things went downhill with the début of the iPhone.
“I thank Kristian and Frank for their efforts on behalf of BlackBerry. I look forward to working more directly with the talented teams of engineers, and the sales and marketing teams around the world to facilitate the BlackBerry turn-around and to drive innovation,” said BlackBerry CEO John Chen in a press release. “I also thank Brian for his eight years of dedicated service to BlackBerry. I look forward to working with James and his Finance team as we move forward, execute on our plans and deliver long-term value for our shareholders.”
BlackBerry “cleaning house” with the old top brass won’t mean anything until we see dividends being paid. However seeing a complete wash of the past is a positive sign, now everything will fall on the CEO John Chen. Chen has put a lot of pressure on himself with his “Mr. Fix It” tag from his earlier job at Sybase. Time will tell whether he truly fixes a doomed BlackBerry company.
[BlackBerry; via ReadWrite]