Company profile
- Industry
- Cybersecurity and software
- Founded
- 1984
- Headquarters
- Waterloo, Canada
- Ownership
- Publicly traded
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
Decisions on record
4 verified Decision Cases on BlackBerry, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | What BlackBerry chose | Where it stood | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | The Fork | Settle for lump sum | Too early to call | Read the story → | The Fork Casebook → |
| 2007 | The Fall | Defend keyboard platform | raised $1 billion in convertible debt, took a $250 million commitment from Fairfax, and handed the wheel to a new CEO (2013-11) | Read the story → | The Fall Casebook → |
| 2010 | The Counterfactual | Frame QNX around automotive | fell from ~20% in 2009 to less than 5% by 2012 (2012) | Read the story → | The Counterfactual Casebook → |
| 2012 | Cannibalization Choice | Keep BBM handset-locked | $518 million loss on $2.8 billion in revenue, shipments down 41% (2012-06) | Read the story → | Cannibalization Choice Casebook → |
Run one of these yourself
The decisions BlackBerry faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
Decision ForksThe CannibalizationShould you launch the thing that takes revenue from your best business?See the pack →Decision ForksThe Road Not TakenWhat did the decision you did not take actually cost?See the pack →Decision ForksThe ResidualHow much of your decline can the agreed explanation actually account for?See the pack →
The analyses
The Cannibalization Choice · Growth & Portfolio
BlackBerry Saw the Touchscreen Coming. Its Own Boardroom Is What Killed It.
The legend says BlackBerry loved its keyboard to death. But Lazaridis privately warned staff they were 'competing with a Mac, not a Nokia.' The keyboard wasn't the anchor - a co-CEO civil war that turned a $5.8B loss into a foregone conclusion was.
8 min
The Counterfactual · Decision Forks
BlackBerry Made Every Right Move. It Just Made Them All Two Years Late.
BlackBerry didn't miss the smartphone era by being blind. It saw the app store, the messaging platform, the modern OS - and shipped each one years after the window closed. By the time BBM opened to iPhone in October 2013, WhatsApp had over 200 million monthly active users and a four-year head start.
7 min
The Fork · Decision Forks
RIM paid NTP $612.5 million in 2006 to buy off a BlackBerry shutdown that was never ordered
In March 2006, Research In Motion handed a patent-holding company $612.5 million in a single lump sum. A judge was days from switching off BlackBerry in the U.S. Years later the patents were mostly gutted — too late to matter.
7 min
The Fall · Crisis & Reinvention
BlackBerry Earned $18.4 Billion After Seeing the iPhone; Three Failures Underneath Sank It
RIM saw the iPhone on day one and still earned $18.4 billion in fiscal 2012. The collapse wasn't blindness — it was an OS that couldn't scale, carriers it had turned into rivals, and two CEOs who couldn't force the one bet that mattered.
8 min
Tools to try
- Ansoff move finderFramework: Ansoff Matrix
- Business model canvas builderFramework: Business Model Canvas
- Change readiness checkFramework: Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
- Five Forces scorerFramework: Porter's Five Forces
- SMART goal builderFramework: SMART Goals
- SWOT builderFramework: SWOT Analysis
More from Stratrix
The Business Model Wizard
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AcquisitionsThe Distance TestDivestituresThe Divestiture TestDiversificationThe Diversification TestMake or buyThe Make-or-Buy TestStratrix Team
Every Casebook, three Strategy Packs a seat each year and Ask Stratrix, for teams that face these decisions all year.
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The defining moves in business, and what they teach, as they publish.