Hope, change, and the return to glory: these are just some of the things that many once believed Thorsten Heins was capable of. As time passed and the situation only got worse, the struggle finally ended. Thorsten Heins, the man thought to be capable of changing the fate of the Canadian smartphone maker once known as Research in Motion was recently ousted. Blackberry announced that Thorsten Heins has stepped down as CEO. This change in management has been part a $1 billion investment deal with Fairfax Financial Holdings, who initially wished to purchase the company back in September.
Heins originally joined Blackberry (then Research in Motion) back in 2007. He assumed different roles throughout the company, notably first as senior vice president of the Blackberry Handheld Business Unit. He also acted as Chief Operating Officer of Product Engineering, and as a Chief Operating Officer of Product Sales from 2011 until he assumed his role as a CEO. It was in January 2012 when he was announced to succeed the BlackBerry company founders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down from their roles as co-CEOs.
In a final struggle to save BlackBerry, Heins pushed the company in numerous ways in the 22 months he worked as CEO. BlackBerry undeniably saw numerous painful job cuts, severing many employees from all over the country. One recent closure saw the loss of 315 jobs when BlackBerry’s office in Bedford, Nova Scotia was shut down. Heins also oversaw the release of the new Blackberry 10 operating system and their respective flagship devices the Z10 and the Q10. The failure of both devices to grab hold of the consumer and enterprise market was another major hit to BlackBerry’s financial situation. Pressure built up very quickly as the tides of the smartphone market continued to swallow up BlackBerry under the Heins’ supervision. Heins also oversaw the deal with Fairfax Financial to buy out BlackBerry. This deal however, was dropped when Fairfax Financials abandoned the proposal, ultimately this caused BlackBerry stocks to drop to $6.60 shortly afterwards.
It has been announced that Heins may be receiving as much as $22 million from his compensation package. It has been reported that Heins may get his current base salary of $3 million for 24 months, and benefits. There is also nearly $5 million which is payable in either cash or as restricted stock units (RSUs) for Heins that vest immediately. These stock options and RSUs will continue to vest for the next 24 months as well. It is highly possible that Heins can profit if BlackBerry’s share prices recover in the future. Overall, this originally stood to be nearly $56 million if he was fired following the sale of the entire company. However, given the collapse of the proposed $4.7 billion buy-out of Blackberry to Fairfax Financial, Heins’ exit package has been reduced to its current value.
Replacing Heins is former president and CEO of Sybase (an enterprise software company) John S. Chen as interim CEO while BlackBerry searches for a permanent replacement. This appointment is known to be part of the deal between Fairfax Financial and Blackberry. As of November 4th, Chen was appointed and will be responsible for the success (or failure) of BlackBerry. As stated in their filling Chen would be “responsible for the strategic direction, strategic relationships, and organizational goals of BlackBerry.” Due to Chen’s reputation of saving Sybase back in the 90s, there is hope that he would be able to turn the tides with BlackBerry and perhaps bring it back to its former glory.
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