BlackBerry recruited Carl Wiese to replace John Sims as the president of global sales.
For a very long time, BlackBerry Limited is trying to revamp and revive its business in the smartphone industry. For many years, the company is doing little or no business and is nowhere near the smartphone giants in the market. Currently, Apple and Samsung are the market leader despite BlackBerry being the pioneer of smartphones and the concept behind it. But for a very long time, BlackBerry is just a lost brand in the middle of nowhere. Hence, the company is considering various management and leadership changes in order to revive its sales.One of the recent changes in the management is the departure of the president of global sales, John Sims. It was a very sudden decision and the spokeswoman of the company decline to comment anything regarding this sudden departure. However, a replacement has already been arranged and Carl Wiese will be filling up the vacant position. Mr. Carl Wiese is the former vice president of sales Cisco. And he will be joining BlackBerry as the president of global sales.The company wants to drive its global sales efforts and it believes that Mr. Carl Wiese can help it do so in the coming times. In recent months or years, the company posted poor sales domestically and internationally. But under the leadership of Carl Wiese, the company will be focusing on the growth of BlackBerry and enhance the go to market strategy of the company.The CEO of the company, John Chen, expresses his happiness regarding the joining or Carl Wiese. He said, “We are deeply committed to working with our customers to bring them the most innovative and secure solutions, and Carl will be central to that effort. Carl has extensive experience in enterprise software and emerging technology solutions, which will be instrumental as BlackBerry moves toward stabilizing revenue and sustaining profitability.”Carl Wiese provided great services to Cisco for 12 years and is expected to succeed John Sims at BlackBerry. His departure was quite unexpected and sudden and no one yet knows what really happened. His resignation came after 18 months of his joining as the president of the global sales at BlackBerry.The company has been posting disappointing results in every quarter and has been missing analysts’ expectations as well. BlackBerry Ltd. set a few targets to achieve in the coming times however the latest quarterly reports indicates that it might not be in the reach of the company to do so.
Alcatel-Lucent has secured 4.53 billion Yuan with China Mobile and 3.59 billion Yuan with China Unicom in two separate contracts to bring the Chinese infrastructure in line with the country's industry and information technology guidelines by 2017.
China Mobile (NYSE:CHL), along with China Unicom, has reached two separate agreements with Alcatel-Lucent for the upgrade of networks for telecommunication providers for a value totaled at $8.12 billion. According to breakdown of the details, the French telecom giant secured agreement worth 4.53 billion Yuan and the China Unicom contract is valued at less than $4 billion. Both contracts have duration of two years and cover fixed broadband access, optical networking functions, as well as software-defined networking amongst others.Alcatel-Lucent said that it would support the Chinese organizations in their endeavor to meet the “Broadband China” initiative, which is set by the Chinese government to increase broadband coverage throughout the nation by the end of this decade, i.e. 2020.By the year 2017, according to guidelines set by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, households in developed and underdeveloped areas will have access to 100Mbps of broadband, whereas residents of mainstream cities will see broadband services of 30Mbps. Fiber optics are expected to cover 80% of administrative villages, on top of rural and urban areas expected to have 4G coverage.The deal is seen as key for China Unicom’s. The cloud unit of China Mobile is already in a partnership with US-based Akamai Technologies to help Chinese businesses expand web presence on the global scale. It comes on top of China Mobile recording its biggest decline in profits since the turn of the 21st Century, attributed mostly to its huge expenditures on network development.Alcatel-Lucent snapped up other contracts with the same companies last year, in areas of Ethernet core routing, as well as being selected in two regions to supply five routing equipment to China Telecom. The strong focus on the Asia Pacific region is evidenced from financial reports showing that it was the only region where the French telecom equipment provider has been able to increase revenues in the Q3 results, clocking in more than 720 million euros, and a massive rise of more than 22%.To be clear, Alcatel-Lucent will cease trading under its current name, and will instead be named as the Nokia Corporation, on the back of a memorandum of understanding between the two sides to merge by early 2016, as part of a $15.5 billion deal.China Mobile’s stock price ended the day at $64.66, a gain of 1.20% the previous day. The company has little amount of time remaining before it starts trading as Nokia Corporation.
The company showed off BlackBerry Venice during Mobile World Congress and it looked more like the new Galaxy S6 Edge model.
BlackBerry Limited once remained a long time market leader of the smartphone industry. The company was the first that initiated the concept of the smartphone but failed to keep up the pace with other brands who advanced in technology. Currently, the market is led by Apple and Samsung and there is no way BlackBerry could come near to their level anytime soon. Hence, there were many rumors recently that the South Korean smartphone maker might acquire BlackBerry or do some collaboration to revive its business.It is true that BlackBerry smartphones product line of the company was everywhere to be seen before the modern smartphones took over the market leaders. BlackBerry was the only source for business productivity that was available on the go. However, the brand in now becoming obsolete as all other brands are doing wonders with their products. BlackBerry was famous for its secure messaging and for its top tech, but it has lost it all now. It all changed when Apple introduced iPhones in the market and Google came up with Android. And with the passage of time, even the loyal BlackBerry users started to choose alternatives.Recently, the connection of rumors between Samsung and BlackBerry interested the investors as well as it might revamp BlackBerry’s business. The company already shocked the smartphone industry when it announced its famous BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) for Android. At that time, the idea of these two companies collaborating together was off the hook but it seems to be good now. Reuters reported in January that Samsung is determined purchase the company for almost $7.5 billion. The report published on the website explained that the executives from both companies met and discussed the potential deal.This story gathered a lot of paces but both companies denied all news and connections linking to each other. However, as the company has now launched its Venice, reports are coming that BlackBerry might be linked or there might be a connection between both parties. According to sources, BlackBerry Venice was a lot like and looked similar to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Hence, that is why analysts are putting a potential partnership back on the tables.BlackBerry Venice is yet a non-issue phone and the company just showed it off during Mobile World Congress this year held in Barcelona. However, the company’s product is a slider if compared to Galaxy S6 Edge and it will support the BlackBerry OS. “Still the presence of a curved display could be seen even then, and a lot can change in a few months, to say the least,” reports Android Authority.
Verizon has signed a deal with Scripps Network for its upcoming OTT service.
Verizon Communications Inc. which is the largest network carrier in the United States recently announced that the company has signed a “multi-year content licensing contract with Scripps Networks Interactive Inc.”. The deal is regarding the mobile first over the top service (OTT) service that is likely to launch in the coming year.The deal signed with Scripps Network is followed by the Verizon’s content agreement with Awesomeness TV which was signed earlier this year. According to sources, this deal was signed by the company to beef up its digital network for programming of its two channels that targets teens and millennial. As it is known, Awesomeness TV offers its viewers with two hours of original programming for many years to follow.Moreover, Verizon has also joined hands with other partners that include 120 Sports by Time Inc., Campus Insiders, CBS Sports, ACC Digital Network, and ESPN that will secure the sports programming section for its new platform. Apart from this, the company will also offer live streamed National Football League to its customers in the service. This will be a part of the deal Verizon signed with Pro Sports League.Verizon plans to join the list of cord cutter after it is all set to launch it's upcoming mobile firstOTT service. The company’s new project target the cord cutters that are preferring digital formats including mobile devices over others. The VP of strategy and acquisition of content at Verizon, Terry Denson, explained in detail about the benefits of Verizon’s upcoming mobile first OTT service. Apart from its convenience, it is the preferred choice for content based services. to target the young audience who is keen to use their smartphones for such content seems like a good bargain.Internet TV is spreading all over the US market vigorously and the traditional television and pay TV cable industry is facing tough competition from the online streaming service providers in the region. The fierce competition is resulting in the cord cutting of the viewers. The OTT service which is comparatively cheaper has to result in cord cutting on a whole new level. This can dent the business model which is being used by the entire pay-TV market. On the other hand, Internet TV has succeeded in becoming a relatively better substitute. At this point, Verizon currently has one target focusing its mobile video service that is to intrigue the younger audience who are more compelled to view programs through their smartphones.
