BlackBerry Ltd. plans to split itself in two by spinning its connected-car software business into a separate public company in an attempt to revive investor interest in the one-time smartphone leader.
This is a pivotal year for BlackBerry. The company announced the sale of most of its legacy smartphone-related patents to Dublin’s Key Patent Innovations earlier this year. That ended a period of several years in which BlackBerry generated hundreds of millions of dollars in high-margin revenue extracting licensing fees from other companies for alleged use of its intellectual property.
But Mr. Chen has since delivered little payoff for shareholders. BlackBerry’s shares have languished for years – except for a brief spike when it became a “meme stock” in 2021 – and are trading at roughly the same level they were 24 years ago when its wireless e-mail device was the hottest tech gadget in the world.
QNX had more success developing software used to connect cars to the internet; the division is expected to deliver 20-per-cent annual growth for years, far more than BlackBerry’s cybersecurity business. Its technology is in more than 235 million cars and used all of the world’s top 10 automakers.