A Canadian flag flies at BlackBerry's headquarters in Waterloo, Ont., July 9, 2013.Geoff Robins
BlackBerry Ltd. and Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. have struck a deal to work together on technology for new vehicles.
For BlackBerry, it is a strategic win, as the Waterloo, Ont.-based company stakes more of its future on the auto industry, with an eye on self-driving cars. In January, it made its first appearance at North America's largest auto show, in Detroit.
BlackBerry already sells technology to car makers around the world. The Jaguar deal will allow the two companies to work more closely together, similar to BlackBerry's partnership with Ford.
BlackBerry, the inventor of the smartphone and once Canada's star tech firm, remains a shadow of its former self, but its stock has risen about 80 per cent in the past year as chief executive officer John Chen's turnaround remains on track. Mr. Chen recently signed a five-year contract extension that could be worth more than US$300-million. He has shifted BlackBerry's focus away from hardware – the phone market in which it soared, then crashed – to software, such as the Jaguar supply agreement.
"For BlackBerry, [Jaguar] is a very important deal," John Wall, a BlackBerry senior vice-president, said in an interview Wednesday. "This aligns completely with John Chen's vision."
The two companies said they have made a multiyear deal but did not release financial details. BlackBerry will license its QNX software and Certicom security technology to Jaguar, and a team of BlackBerry engineers will work on the project.
"Working with BlackBerry will enable us to develop the safe and secure next generation connected car our customers want," said Dave Nesbitt, a vehicle engineering director at Jaguar Land Rover, in a statement.
BlackBerry said its expertise in secure software for the car industry helps protect technology in vehicles from cyberattacks. It said this is a "pivotal moment" for auto makers, who are trying to figure out the "software architecture" of vehicles that are becoming ever more reliant on technology to guide driving.
The partnership is BlackBerry's second deal this week. On Tuesday, it said it would work with former rival Microsoft Corp., connecting its mobile security technology with mobile apps from Microsoft. BlackBerry stock rose 3 per cent that day after the news.
The Jaguar deal was officially announced early on Thursday morning.