[zyben]

This is too bad :

Apple hires BlackBerry's top software VP, BlackBerry wins court battle over departure

Sebastien Marineau-Mes, BlackBerry's SVP of Software, is leaving the ailing smartphone manufacturer for brighter and warmer pastures: Apple. Or at least that's what he's trying to do, if it weren't for those pesky contracts. As revealed in a recent ruling from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice document, Marineau-Mes began discussing leaving BlackBerry for Apple back in September 2013, and was formally offered the position of Vice President of Core OS in December.

He accepted the position and offered his written resignation to BlackBerry on December 23rd, advising them that he'd likely be heading out to Apple in two months time. That's where the legal dispute of BlackBerry Limited v. Marineau-Mes started, as per a contract signed by Marineau-Mes that gave him a promotion to BlackBerry EVP of Platform Development he was required to provide six months notice of his resignation.

To add insult to injury, that contract was signed on September 27, 2013 � both while BlackBerry was under a promotional freeze (except for when you really want to keep somebody) and while Marineau-Mes was in discussions about moving to Apple. So BlackBerry took Marineau-Mes to court, and the court agreed that he should fulfill his six-month notice obligation at the company.

We reached out to BlackBerry for statement:

"BlackBerry will not stand by while a former employee violates his employment contract. It is unfortunate that we had to take this step, but we will do whatever is necessary to ensure that employees honor the agreements they make with us. When we enter into an agreement with an employee, as we have with Mr. Marineau, we expect him to honor his commitment just as he would expect that we will honor ours. We are pleased that the court has endorsed our position and ruled that the employee contract and its terms are valid."

Marineau-Mes came to BlackBerry in 2010 when then-Research In Motion purchased QNX and used that software to build the basis of the BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry 10. BlackBerry insiders have long considered him to be one of the great talents on the team, and he's worked closely with QNX founder Dan Dodge for years.

It's hard to say what effect exactly this ruling will have on Marineau-Mes' status at BlackBerry and Apple. At the very least we can expect that it will push back his end date in Waterloo to June 23rd � or the 4-month delay could make Apple look elsewhere. For what it's worth, Apple's been down this road before. In 2008 Apple tried hiring Mark Papermaster away from IBM, but the transition was hung up on a no-compete clause that took several months to resolve. Apple's a patient company when they want to be, so if they really want Marineau-Mes, they'll wait. Until June.

Apple hires BlackBerry's top software VP, BlackBerry wins court battle over departure | iMore

[bungaboy]

This 'might' be helpful, but is certainly interesting.

Check out the current sentiment rating for "BlackBerry" from socialmention


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[W Hoa]

BlackBerry short interest holding steady

Settlement Date Short Interest
3/14/2014 105,469,466
2/28/2014 104,929,510

[rim4ever]

It's good to see that shorts haven't been able to cover much if any at all. I surely hope that Friday's ER brings longs some good news.

[cjcampbell]

It's good to see that shorts haven't been able to cover much if any at all. I surely hope that Friday's ER brings longs some good news.

I don't think it has anything with being "able" to cover. They're just holding out and shorting more. Another half million added. I wouldn't be surprised if they're holding out for the ER as traditionally the sp tanks. We're riding awfully close to the $9 line and I don't think that that's a coincidence.

Posted via CB10

[W Hoa]

Can BlackBerry make its new BBM profit plan stick?

[Stickers] can also be hugely lucrative. For example, BBM competitor Viber (which was sold to Japan’s Rakuten for $900-million) said in January that its 300 million users had downloaded 100 million sticker packs in the first three months it offered them.

The cost of a “pack” of stickers starts at $1.99

Can BlackBerry make its new BBM profit plan stick? - The Globe and Mail

[TimJohnSmith]

What do you think of BBM Money? Big potential? Can it be linked to Interact in North America?

Tim Smith from my Z10 on Rogers

[jake simmons3]

Huge potential...but at this point just potential

Posted via CB10

[dusdal]

Definitely huge potential.

From a strategic perspective it seems ideal, regulated industry, top security requirements, utilizes NOC.

Just likely to be a big bottleneck in finding partners (banks) that are willing to give up a portion of their profits per transaction to make it happen.

Posted via CB10

[BBUK14]

EE is launching a 4G phone for about �99 here in the UK. I've been saying that the Z3 would be best sold at �99 here, and still hope for a pleasant surprise, but as it's not 4G, we may see plenty of salespeople steering people away from the Z3 to this cheap Android. I so think the Z3 at least looks nicer, but might be a plus as people on such a budget might not want 4G data-burn anyway.

http://m.techradar.com/news/phone-an...c=rss&attr=all

Join the Cause @ BlackBerry Bootleg Marketing Channel - C003483F4

[cgk]

EE is launching a 4G phone for about �99 here in the UK. I've been saying that the Z3 would be best sold at �99 here, and still hope for a pleasant surprise, but as it's not 4G, we may see plenty of salespeople steering people away from the Z3 to this cheap Android. I so think the Z3 at least looks nicer, but might be a plus as people on such a budget might not want 4G data-burn anyway.

http://m.techradar.com/news/phone-an...c=rss&attr=all

Join the Cause @ BlackBerry Bootleg Marketing Channel - C003483F4

Well on EE, the sales people steering them away wouldn't be a problem as they only sell 4G phones...

More seriously, we will see an acceleration of 4g phones sub-�100 after this announcement.

sent from my bright red Nexus 5

[snejpa]

http://www.theflyonthewall.com/perma...--at-Citigroup

BlackBerry price target raised to $8 from $4 at Citigroup
Citigroup doubled its price target for BlackBerry shares to $8 citing increased liquidity following its review of the company's s purchase commitments, cash, and sale of Canadian real estate. Citi expects BlackBerry's Q4 earnings to show a continued deterioration of the business, especially in Services, and reiterates a Sell rating on the stock.

[Corbu]

BlackBerry Advances Security of its Multi-Platform Mobility Portfolio with New Cryptography Certification - Press Releases

[jake simmons3]

Stock Market & Financial Investment News: Educated Investors Get Live Stock Market News Feeds & Alerts at The Fly On the Wall

BlackBerry price target raised to $8 from $4 at Citigroup
Citigroup doubled its price target for BlackBerry shares to $8 citing increased liquidity following its review of the company's s purchase commitments, cash, and sale of Canadian real estate. Citi expects BlackBerry's Q4 earnings to show a continued deterioration of the business, especially in Services, and reiterates a Sell rating on the stock.

wow these guys are on the ball

[jake simmons3]

King Falls in ‘Candy Crush’ Maker’s Debut Amid $500 Million IPO - Businessweek

Candy crush is worth 7.5 billions and BBRY is only worth 5 lol. Do the math people even at this time BBRY is worth 15-20 a share

[sidhuk]

OT.
Stay safe eastern chapter.
http://mashable.com/2014/03/25/developing-storm-canada/

[W Hoa]

Citigroup sees increase in BlackBerry phone sales:

"We expect [fourth quarter] earnings to show a continued deterioration of the business especially in services while declines in the device business should begin to level off. We estimate device shipments bottoming at 1.6M units in the Feb quarter down from 1.9M in November before shooting back up to 2.5M in May on the launch of the first wave of Foxconn phones into Indonesia," the note said.

[BBUK14]

King Falls in ‘Candy Crush’ Maker’s Debut Amid $500 Million IPO - Businessweek

Candy crush is worth 7.5 billions and BBRY is only worth 5 lol. Do the math people even at this time BBRY is worth 15-20 a share

Well, not really. Candy Crush doesn't have the operating costs, does it? I do agree that BB will be worth a lot if we can see that it's here to stay, but an app is a different sort of thing.

Join the Cause @ BlackBerry Bootleg Marketing Channel - C003483F4

[Hilman76]

King Falls in �€˜Candy Crush�€™ Maker�€™s Debut Amid $500 Million IPO - Businessweek

Candy crush is worth 7.5 billions and BBRY is only worth 5 lol. Do the math people even at this time BBRY is worth 15-20 a share

How much did King make last quarter versus Blackberry?

[bungaboy]

BlackBerry gets U.S. government clearance for e-mail software - The Globe and Mail

[jmehta22]

OT - Hey Morgan, can you please share some insight as to what is happening to all the biotech stocks within the past few days? They just keep on bleeding! this is brutal..

Thanks in advance

[sidhuk]

http://blogs.blackberry.com/2014/03/blackberry-leaks/

[sidhuk]

I hope he stops the company financials leaks, so those short numbers could come down a bit.

Posted using Z30. Best of the best Smart phone in the world.

[jake simmons3]

Taking Action to Stop Leaks | Inside BlackBerry

I always wondered about that. BBRY has clearly been a leaky boat this past year from huge write off leaks to device leaks. I think Chen really needs to get on top of this and make sure nothing leaks. Look at apple im sure they have so many beta / prototype phones and tablets and you never even hear of anything but here at BBRY we have the leaked specs for the next 8 or so devices and leaked future OS and picture and video of phone that havnt or will never come out. Even more importantly over the past year the shorts where clearly able to get there hands on insider information and used it to there advantage. Fix the issue mr Chen

[spiller]

Stock Market & Financial Investment News: Educated Investors Get Live Stock Market News Feeds & Alerts at The Fly On the Wall

BlackBerry price target raised to $8 from $4 at Citigroup
Citigroup doubled its price target for BlackBerry shares to $8 citing increased liquidity following its review of the company's s purchase commitments, cash, and sale of Canadian real estate. Citi expects BlackBerry's Q4 earnings to show a continued deterioration of the business, especially in Services, and reiterates a Sell rating on the stock.

I think these late upgrade are all part of the shorts strategy. We consistently see Blackberry price targets raised the week before earning, but to targets still lower than the SP. This pushes the EPS and revenue estimate averages UP, and when results are announced they often will these newly raised averages, and the stock sells off. Maybe I'm not thinking this through....but it is consistent.