Blackberry’s turnaround is in full swing, and the company’s CEO told Cheddar he’s expanding its software, cybersecurity, and automotive services to drive growth in 2018. “Our software are now embedded into a lot of the chipset or optimizers of people like Qualcomm,” John Chen said in an interview Wednesday. “The strength comes in from that.” Blackberry shares jumped to near three-year highs Wednesday, after the company reported earnings and revenue in the latest quarter above analyst estimates. While sales fell 25 percent from a year ago, the drop wasn’t as bad as expected. And profit came in at 3 cents a share, while analysts were expecting the company to break even. The company was a pioneer in the smartphone market, but lost ground to rivals like the iPhone and Samsung products. But it’s shifted into new areas. Chen said that, while Blackberry has been in the auto industry for about a decade, it began making a “major push” into the space four years ago. “We focused on designing new components of cars like lane-changing, advanced driver assistance, telematics that talk to the internet,” he said. The chief exec says 60 million cars on the road currently operate on Blackberry software.
