Speaking with BBN on the BlackBerry earning results, BlackBerry CEO John Chen has the company firing on all cylinders to execute on the software strategy. With the pivot and transition behind them and the software story in clear focus, Chen has BlackBerry on the up and up hiring 1000 new employees during 2016 and right-sizing the company in the process, the company has approximately 4000 employees. At the time of writing the $BBRY stock is up over 12%.
Chen had some interesting talk points across the interview. One key comment was on investments:
"We need to invest. It will be investing internally, it will be a combination of both [investing and M&A] -- but we will acquire."
Beyond this Chen speaks on the strategic value of their partnership with Ford and how BlackBerry is moving beyond infotainment. The more pieces of software that BlackBerry has in the vehicle, the more money BlackBerry stands to make from their royalty model. Major automakers like Ford highlight the value BlackBerry brings by owning the whole stack from kernel to OS to apps.
"Infotainment is a big market because almost every connected car needs one, but it's commoditizing. We need to move the per-car revenue up, and the only way to move the per-car revenue up is to come up with more sophisticated applications than the newer ones."
Chen even discusses his work with Giuliani Partners as an opportunity to get a BlackBerry in the hands of US President Donald Trump.
For more highlights from John Chen's conversation with Amber Kanwar, check the posting at BNN.
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