BlackBerry CEO John Chen is making clear that he does not have any plans to sell the company.
The Canadian handset maker is well known in the mobile phone industry for its secure devices, which are being used by government agencies even today. However, the release of smartphones from companies such as Apple, Samsung, HTC and more has changed the industry.
BlackBerry failed to embrace change in the rapidly shifting smartphone industry and lost a major chunk of its market share to competitors.
Thorsten Heins, former CEO of BlackBerry, tried to revive the company but all his attempts failed, and he stepped down from the post of big boss. Chen joined the company in November 2013 and has since been taking steps to increase BlackBerry's market share in the smartphone industry.
There have been many rumors that BlackBerry will be sold but in an interview on CBC's The Exchange with Amanda Lang, Chen revealed that he does not intend to sell the company.
"I don't have any intention to sell BlackBerry. Not until the BlackBerry shareholder has good value reflecting truly what we have," said Chen. "Then, if there is a potential proper suitor that would take care of our customers ... I have a fiduciary responsibility to listen. But until then, there's no point in listening."
Chen also spoke about BlackBerry's hardware and software business as well as future plans for the company. The CEO revealed that the company won 2,600 renewed or new customers for the software servers, and many of these companies are big names in the industry.
While the software department of BlackBerry may be doing good, the company's handsets are still lackluster and unable to compete with rivals. However, Chen stressed that the company's handsets are still preferred by customers who are searching for secure smartphones.
BlackBerry sold more than 1.1 million devices from January to March this year in comparison to 2.6 million units during the same period in 2014.
BlackBerry handsets come pre-installed with the company's own operating system. However, rumors have been surfacing that BlackBerry will launch a few handsets dubbed Venice and Prague that will come running on the Android platform.
It remains to be seen if the upcoming Android-powered BlackBerry handsets will come to the company's rescue in the smartphone market.
