BBM Boss Bocking Bolts From BlackBerry

BlackBerry has confirmed that Andrew Bocking, the head of its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) unit, has left the company in the latest change to the firm’s senior management team.

No reason for Bocking’s departure has been given, but it is curious given that the launch of a cross-platform version of BBM has been one of the few recent success stories and one of the areas which recently-installed CEO John Chen has been looking towards to revive the company’s fortunes.

BBM departure

“I can confirm that Andrew Bocking, EVP, BBM has made the decision to leave BlackBerry. We thank him for his years of leadership and contribution,” a BlackBerry spokesperson tells TechWeekEurope. “The BBM organisation remains as a group within BlackBerry and will continue to focus on BlackBerry and BBM strength in messaging and new areas of strength such as mobile marketing, community-building and enterprise messaging.

“John Sims, president, global enterprise solutions, who has extensive experience in mobile messaging, will add the BBM team to his organisation.”

Sims, the former president of SAP’s Mobile Services business, joined BlackBerry in January to spearhead the firm’s renewed push into the enterprise space. BlackBerry claims that 85 percent of its BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) customers use BBM to communicate within their businesses, so although BBM will remain a separate unit within the company, it could be more closely tied to its enterprise efforts.

The cross-platform version of BBM has proved hugely popular since it was released on Android, iPhone and iPad last year, with the messaging platform as a whole boasting 8 million users.

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