BlackBerry appoints John Giamatteo as CEO, shelves IPO plans for IoT  biz

Canadian technology company BlackBerry on Tuesday announced the appointment of John J Giamatteo as its new Chief Executive Officer and as a member of its Board of Directors, effective immediately. Richard (Dick) Lynch, who served as interim CEO since November 4, will continue as Board Chair. 

“Giamatteo’s deep industry experience and outstanding track record of inspiring teams and delivering operational excellence means he is strongly positioned to drive this critical transformation of BlackBerry,” said Mike Daniels, Chair of the Compensation, Nomination and Governance Committee of the BlackBerry Board. 

Giamatteo has over 30 years of experience with global technology companies and has served as the President of BlackBerry's Cybersecurity business unit since October 2021. During that time, he has driven significant enhancements to the product portfolio, go-to-market strategy and organizational efficiency. Prior to BlackBerry he was President and Chief Revenue Officer at McAfee.   

Before that, John served as Chief Operating Officer at AVG Technologies, a leading provider of internet and mobile security. He also held leadership positions with Solera, RealNetworks and Nortel Networks. 

“I am excited to lead the next phase of BlackBerry’s evolution as its CEO. BlackBerry’s IoT and Cybersecurity businesses have market-leading technology, exceptional teams and large market opportunities,” said Giamatteo. 

The company further announced that it will separate the IoT and cybersecurity businesses, and they will operate as fully standalone divisions. BlackBerry said it will no longer pursue a subsidiary IPO of the IoT business. 

The process will include the separation and streamlining of BlackBerry's centralized corporate functions into business-unit specific teams, with a view to each division operating independently and on a profitable and cashflow-positive basis going forward. 

Based in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry secures more than 500 million endpoints including over 235 million vehicles. To assist in the separation and right-sizing process, BlackBerry is in the final stages of selecting a consulting firm to bring expertise and additional resources for an independent, ground-up assessment, the company said in a statement.