According to Prem Watsa, Thorsten Heins was never asked to leave BlackBerry and in Prem’s eyes ‘Heins did a very good job given the hand he was dealt.’ Which is very true, Heins was put in a very tough position when he took over as CEO of BlackBerry as they were going in a downward spiral, he did some good things, while also making some questionable decisions. We all know the crazy week it was for BlackBerry, last week and how things could change in a blink of an eye.
Now that Prem Watsa is lead director for the BlackBerry board, John Chen is CEO, things will be going in a different direction. Interesting enough founder of BlackBerry, Mike Lazaridis wanted his company back but he wanted to be the lead man that would run BlackBerry on his own says Prem Watsa, Prem stated he wanted to work with Mike as they are good friends but if Prem is going to invest x amount of dollars, he wasn’t going to let a company be ran by a former CEO who did not do so well towards the end of his time as head of the company.
Source: Globe and Mail