The past couple of months has seen Waterloo-based BlackBerry go through several executive changes. Gone are CEO Thorsten Heins, COO Kristian Tear, and CMO Frank Boulben, replaced at the top by a single person: John Chen, Interim CEO of BlackBerry. The so-called “fixer” boldly declared, shortly after the announcement, that the company is no longer seeking a buyer, and stated BlackBerry will be “going back to our heritage and roots” of attracting loyal enterprise customers.
A new report from the Wall Street Journal indicates that more executive level cuts are coming. “According to people familiar with the matter,” both Chris Wormald, Vice President, Strategic Alliances at BlackBerry, and Rick Costanzo, Executive Vice President of Global Sales, will both soon be leaving BlackBerry. Costanzo by “early next year” and Wormald “will be gone by the end of this month.”
BlackBerry previously declared plans to cut about 5,000 employees from their roster and to-date the numbers have totalled well over 1,000. Apparently when Chen took over the company he held a town-hall meeting, saying “things are going to get worse before they get better… Not all of you will be here.”
Source: WSJ
