New York: BlackBerry Ltd would consider exiting its handset business if it remains unprofitable, as it plans to expand its corporate reach with investments, acquisitions and partnerships.
"If I cannot make money on handsets, I will not be in the handset business," said John Chen. He would not be more specific, but said it should be possible to make money off shipments of as few as 10 million a year.
At its peak, BlackBerry shipped 52.3 million devices in fiscal 2011, while it recorded revenue on less than 2 million last quarter. Chen, who took the helm of the struggling company in November, said BlackBerry was also looking to invest in or team up with other companies in regulated industries such as healthcare, and financial and legal services, all of which require highly secure communications.
The Chief Executive stated that the small acquisitions to strengthen BlackBerry's network security offerings were also possible. "We are building an engineering team on the service side that is focused on security. We are building an engineering team on the device side that is focused on security. We will do some partnerships and we will probably, potentially do an M&A on security," added more.
In a wide ranging interview in New York, Chen acknowledged past management mistakes and said he had a long-term strategy to compliment the short-term goals of staying afloat and stemming customer defections.
In March, the embattled smartphone maker reported a quarterly net loss of $423 million and a 64 percent drop in its revenues, underscoring the magnitude of the challenge Chen faces in turning around the company.
Chen said his long-term plans for BlackBerry included competing in the burgeoning business of connecting all manner of devices, from kitchen appliances to automotive consoles to smartphones.
"We are not only interested in managing BlackBerry devices. We are interested in managing all devices that you would like to speak to each other. To achieve our dream of being a major player in M2M requires more partnerships with others," concluded Chen.
