Section 2 'The similarities to that
other technological pioneer' (The
critical view of BlackBerry now)
It's spooky how the BlackBerry situation
resembles the Nokia situation. Let me
demonstrate.
-
September 2010 - Stephen Elop
announced as CEO of Nokia.
January 2012 - Thorsten Heins
announced as CEO of BlackBerry.
-
February 2011 - announcement that
Nokia will shift to WP.
2013 - Blackberry is focusing on BBOS 10
and BBOS 7 in different markets
-
2011-2012 - About 20,000 Nokia
employees get the boot
2011-2013 - About 7,000 BlackBerry
employees get the boot
-
May 2013 - Announcement they're being
bought by Microsoft
September 2013 - Announcement
Fairfax made an offer to buy
-
2013 - Bonus controversy, Stephen gets
18 million after the acquisition by
Microsoft (negotiated on the same day
the sale went down)
2013 - Departure controversy, Thorsten
stands to receive 55 million after being
acquired (negotiated by Prem Watsa,
chairman of Fairfax)
Are we seeing a new form of business
takeover strategies? Get someone in
there that botches things up so a
takeover is possible and be handsomely
rewarded? Perhaps. But as much as I
would like to indulge the conspiracy
theorists, what's more likely, is the fact
that neither Heins nor Elop were CEO
material and gave their companies
(unwillingly?) the push it needed to fall
off the cliff. Being snatched up by the
vultures circling.
Their bonus after acquisition is merely
part of the vulture strategy to secure
takeover support on the board and
possibly to secure public support by the
CEO for the takeover.
The actual article is very long, if u have the patience, head over to the link bellow to read it.
http://forums.crackberry.com/armchair-ceo-f410/future-blackberry-rim-857555/