BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s life hangs in the balance as executives try to figure out what to do to save the company. The go-private deal fell through, and now things are even more desperate than ever for the once-dominant smartphone maker. But as most ask whether BlackBerry can survive, one author says that isn’t the right question at all. He says we should be pondering whether the company has any right to survive.
Does BlackBerry have a right to stay alive?
Steve Tobak of Fox Business suggests that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) should just go softly into the night. He says it is the nature of the technology industry that one company’s innovation is unseated as king by another company’s even-better innovation. And he’s certainly right. We’ve seen this throughout history time and again. But he doesn’t think BlackBerry has a right to stay alive.
He notes that there was a time when mighty Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was close to dying, but he says the company’s board “had a clue” and “knew what was going on.” He says Apple chose the right leaders to turn it around. However, he says this is the exception rather than the rule.
Is BlackBerry’s board good enough?
He suggests that the real problem that has plagued BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) all these years is its board of directors. He says they have been “living in denial” and that the company simply waited too long to put a new innovative device on the market. He thinks BlackBerry has no right to survive because its board members stood back until the only thing the company had left was “some cash and a few dusty old patents.”
So are BlackBerry’s leaders entirely clueless? They did bring in John Chen as CEO, but whether he will be able to do anything with the company at this point is debatable. But there’s one thing for certain. If he does engineer a turnaround at BlackBerry, he will definitely deserve the title of “Turnaround Master.”
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