Blackberry shares soared after the company beat analysts earnings forecasts. John Chen, CEO of Blackberry, joined us to break down the results.
Blackberry's results were boosted by an increase in business software sales and licensing revenue. Chen says Blackberry has 2 major focuses. The first is the enterprise software business and the other is the auto sector. Blackberry has been in the auto business for 8-10 years, but made a bigger push about 4 years ago, he points out.
Chen says there are 60 million cars on the roads using blackberry software. Looking forward, the company is working on designing new components such as lane-changing and communication capabilities with other cars and infrastructure. He sees a huge opportunity in the space, emphasizing that about 100 million cars are made every year.
Amazon has closed its $8.5 billion acquisition of Hollywood studio MGM, two days after European regulators said the deal “would not significantly reduce competition” in European markets.
James Coddington, CEO of SkillsVR, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how virtual reality is being used to train frontline workers to deal with difficult customers, and how this technology is being applied to diversity training.
What you Need to Know on Thursday, March 17. Updates from Ukraine, President Biden refers to Putin as a ‘war criminal’ for the first time, Walmart has ambitious hiring targets for Q1, and Netflix takes steps to crack down on password sharing.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Cheddar's Michelle Castillo from South By Southwest to boost President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure legislation and talk about the big transportation issues of the day, including electric vehicle charging infrastructure and the future of public transit. "It means we have a huge wind at our back delivering on the kinds of transportation solutions that are going to define the 2020's 2030s, 2040s even," he said. "And that's what makes it exciting to come to South by Southwest and talk with some of the people who are following these technologies and ideas the most closely and talk about where we're headed." Buttigieg also touched on the "Don't Say Gay" legislation in Florida, noting that such legislative pushes were likely coming from politicians deflecting from lacking answers to pressing economic concerns, in his opinion.
