TechSmart 121, October 2013 TechSmart 123, December 2013 | Page 11

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No 2

BlackBerry turns sour

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lackBerry has been in trouble for quite some time, but this year, everything appeared to come to a head for the once upon a time darling of the business world. After posting record losses this year of around $950 million, things moved from serious to dire. In August,
the company announced that it was exploring its “strategic alternatives,” which included seeking a partner or selling itself off.

Alas, it appeared that few mobile companies were keen on the latter, exacerbated by an acquisition deal with Fairfax Financial Holdings that later fell
through. And, while BlackBerry secured a $1 billion investment deal from Fairfax and some other investors, it again sent tremors through the BlackBerry
world by showing ex-CEO Thorsten Heins the door, and talks of a trim of 4 500 employees. In his place, the company hired a new interrim CEO, John
Chen, on whom BlackBerry has pinned its hopes that it can somehow return to glory.

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No 1

NSA Prism:

Yes we scan!

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ossibly one of the most earth shattering
happenings came from one Edward
Snowden, who opened a can of worms
when he revealed that the US National Security
Agency (NSA) had been spying on, well,
everyone. It turns out that the intelligence
agency had been monitoring all sorts of electronic
communications for years, including that of its
own citizens, with even the German chancellor
falling under its net.
This sparked not only an international run by
Snowden, and political wrangling between countries
around who would, and would not, offer him a
safe haven, but also a major question about
people’s privacy on a global scale. While this
concern dominated 2013, the PRISM revelations also had rippling effects. One of these was
that technology companies the likes of Microsoft
and Google found themselves in the hot seat,
when it emerged that the tech titans had been
compelled by the US government to grant them
access to certain users’ data. The debacle is far
from over and is set to have a profound impact
on the internet as we know it in years to come.
[RN]

December 2013 | TechSmart

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