Wiese has spent the past 12 years at Cisco Systems Inc., initially heading advanced technology sales and later Cisco’s collaboration-product sales efforts. At BlackBerry, he replaces John Sims as global head of sales. BlackBerry did not provide any reasons for the departure of Sims, who was at the company for about 18 months.
Although software revenue more than doubled year-over-year to some $137-million in the latest quarter, much of the growth came from two patent cross-licensing deals. This spooked many analysts, who were disappointed by the weaker-than-expected core software growth. BlackBerry shares tumbled to a 13-month low on the Nasdaq last week.
BlackBerry shares were up 1.7 per cent at $7.82 on Monday morning.
The company has also backed away from a separate $100-million target for revenue from its BlackBerry Messenger service, leading to further concern about its ability to increase sales.
Some analysts have long been skeptical about the viability of BlackBerry’s software revenue targets. When Chen went over the sales targets at an analysts’ event in San Francisco last November and received pushback from some analysts, he smiled and stated that if targets are not met he’d still be around next year, though some of his team might not.
The company declined to comment on whether Sims’ departure was tied to weaker-than-expected software revenue growth.
Chen indicated last month that he remains comfortable with the $500-million revenue target, and noted that some of that growth is set to come from acquisitions.
The company is also widely expected to debut a new Android-based smartphone before the end of the year to try to boost its hardware sales.
facebook
twitter
google+
fb share