Blackberry 2015 Annual Report Download - page 14

Table of Contents
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• Completed the divestiture of the majority of the Company's real estate holdings in Canada (the “Real Estate Sale”);
• Announced a three-year agreement with EnStream LP (“EnStream”), a mobile payments joint venture owned by
Canadian wireless carriers Bell, Rogers and TELUS, to provide a secure platform that supports transaction services
between leading banks and consumers;
• Announced an agreement with Salesforce.com Inc. (“Salesforce”) to connect its customer relationship management
platform to BlackBerry's EMM solutions;
• Announced an investment in healthcare information technology leader NantHealth LLC and collaboration on the
development of HIPAA and other government privacy certified, integrated clinical systems that facilitate the delivery
of medical care, including the launch of the next generation of NantHealth HBOX, a portable medical device that
captures and transmits secure medical data among the patient, doctor and hospital featuring QNX technology;
• Provided for mobile device management (“MDM”) companies to directly manage devices with the BlackBerry 10
operating system (“OS”), including AirWatch, Citrix Systems, Inc. (“Citrix”) and IBM Corporation (“IBM”); and
• Completed the CORE program in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015.
Fiscal 2014:
• Announced on August 12, 2013, the formation of a Special Committee by the Board to explore strategic alternatives to
enhance value and increase scale to accelerate BlackBerry 10 deployment;
• Announced on September 23, 2013, that the Company had signed a letter of intent (the “LOI”) with Fairfax Financial
Holdings Limited (“Fairfax”), a Canadian company led by Prem Watsa, under which a consortium to be led by Fairfax
proposed to acquire the Company;
• Announced on November 4, 2013, that in lieu of the transaction contemplated by the LOI, the Company had entered into
an agreement pursuant to which Fairfax and other institutional investors would subscribe for $1 billion aggregate principal
amount of 6% unsecured subordinated convertible debentures due 2020, with an option to purchase an additional $250
million principal amount of debentures (collectively, the “Debentures”). The announcement of this financing marked
the conclusion of the strategic review process previously announced by the Board. The initial $1 billion investment of
Debentures was completed on November 13, 2013, and the option to purchase the additional $250 million of Debentures
was completed on January 16, 2014 (collectively, the “Debenture Financing”);
• The Debenture Financing resulted in the following changes to the Board and management team:
• appointment of John Chen as Executive Chair of the Board and Interim Chief Executive Officer,
• appointment of Prem Watsa as Lead Director of the Board and Chair of the Compensation, Nomination and
Governance Committee, and
• resignations of Thorsten Heins as Chief Executive Officer and a director, and David Kerr as a director;
• Announced the Company’s plan to transition the business to focus on four areas: the Devices business, Enterprise Services,
the QNX Embedded business (now part of the BTS unit) and Messaging;
• Announced further management and Board changes as part of the on-going reorganization of BlackBerry including:
• appointment of James Yersh as Chief Financial Officer (replacing Brian Bidulka),
• appointment of Eric Johnson as President, Global Sales,
• appointment of Ron Louks as President, Devices and Emerging Solutions,
• appointment of James S. Mackey as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Strategic Planning,
• appointment of John Sims as President, Global Enterprise Services,
• resignations of Kristian Tear as Chief Operating Officer and Frank Boulben as Chief Marketing Officer, and
• resignation of Roger Martin from the Board;
• Announced a joint device development and manufacturing agreement with Foxconn Technology Group (“Foxconn”),
initially focusing on the development of a consumer smartphone for Indonesia and other fast-growing markets;
• Announced in March 2014 the entry into an agreement for the Real Estate Sale;
• Announced in February 2014 new enterprise solutions, partnerships and smartphone models, including BES12. The
Company also announced a new BES pricing and licensing structure (Silver and Gold) and a new EZ pass program that
enabled customers to move from BES and competitors' MDM programs to BES10 or BES12 at the Silver level of service
for free (the program ceased at the end of December 2014) and the eBBM Suite (a family of products and services,
including BBM Protected, to provide enterprise-class mobile messaging);
• Launched updates to BES10 (versions 10.1 and 10.2) and launched software updates for BlackBerry 10 smartphones
(versions 10.1, 10.2 and 10.2.1), with hundreds of new enhancements and refinements;
• Unveiled new QNX technology in automotive and cloud services at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show
in January 2014;
• Launched BBM for Android and iPhone® customers for free and subsequently launched BBM Voice and BBM Channels
for Android and iPhone customers;
• Announced the availability of BBM to Windows Phone® customers;
• Announced in December 2013 the preinstallation of BBM on LG smartphones in markets around the world;