BlackBerry looks to bolster its cybersecurity and IoT divisions

Canada-based tech company BlackBerry plans to bolster its offerings by putting its weight behind two main business units, cybersecurity, and the Internet of Things (IoT), in a bid to further align operations and go-to-market efforts to its key market opportunities.

The move follows the company’s previous announcement to separately report revenues of its operating business units in the new fiscal year, BlackBerry said in a statement.

The software maker’s new focus will include the appointment of business unit general managers with deep industry expertise to provide direction to strategy, engineering, direct and channel sales, customer support and field marketing.

With that in mind, BlackBerry has promoted President Tom Eacobacci to BlackBerry President and Chief Operating Officer. Eacobacci will also serve as Acting General Manager of the Cyber Security business unit, which combines BlackBerry Spark together with the company’s critical event management and secure communications solutions.

“BlackBerry is delivering the next generation of cloud-based, AI cybersecurity solutions to address today’s and tomorrow’s cybersecurity threats and ensure organizations of all sizes remain safe, secure and productive,” Eacobacci said in a statement.

Eacobacci, who brings deep expertise in enterprise software, will continue to drive the company’s growth in the highly attractive cybersecurity market where BlackBerry technology, driven by Cylance AI, has unique competitive differentiation.

BlackBerry is also announcing the appointment of Mattias Eriksson as President and General Manager of the newly formed BlackBerry IoT business unit. The business unit consists of BlackBerry Technology Solutions or BTS (BlackBerry QNX, BlackBerry Certicom, BlackBerry Radar and BlackBerry Jarvis) and BlackBerry IVY. 

“BlackBerry is a leader in the IoT and embedded software systems market with its software installed in an impressive number of endpoints. BlackBerry is poised to extend this position by accelerating the adoption of emerging automotive connected services with the BlackBerry IVY platform, as well as by targeting other related industries,” Eriksson noted. 

Eriksson will be responsible for driving IoT platform strategy and operations and will join BlackBerry in the first week of May.   

“Cybersecurity and IoT are recognized high-growth markets where BlackBerry can add tremendous value. BlackBerry is applying its world-class security expertise to address the needs of these markets,” Executive Chairman and CEO John Chen said. 

“The promotion of Tom, addition of Mattias, and the alignment of our business around our key market opportunities sharpens our operational focus to unlock the company’s shareholder value,” Chen added.