BlackBerry’s downsized employee base in India is not a deliberate move to cut staff  but a result of a global transformation drive, according to Steven E. Zipperstein, Chief Legal Officer, BlackBerry.
“We have around 28 employees here. There’s been no deliberate decision to downsize in India. We have been going through a transformation, thus the employee base has changed all over the world In US, Latin America, East Asia, and India is no different,” Zipperstein told ET.
“In fact, India is one of the most important markets for us,”
Zipperstein has been meeting BlackBerry’s customers and partners in India lately.
“We are communicating to the users, the government, and the partners that we are here to stay. India is important to BlackBerry,” he said, adding that the company is focused on financial health, broadening the software portfolio and increasing the number of ways in which it can serve customers.
The company will shortly announce a new Managing Director for India. In the interim, Matthew Tonkin, vice-president, carrier sales and distribution, APAC, has been taking care of the India operations since BlackBery India Manager Sunil Lalvani quit and joined Qualcomm as Head of India Operations.
BlackBerry recently added a team of 50 engineers in Noida through its acquisition of Movirtu. Through a partnership with ValueLabs, BlackBerry also has 100 odd engineers who are working on the company’s products and services.
“We have more software engineers in India now than we did a year ago. That trend is being replicated in other markets and India is leading that,”
He said that the company is actively looking to hire talent to support its enterprise software and solutions in India.
“We have aspirations to grow in India, and we want to make India to be the world’s leading R&D hub.”
