The largest investor in Research In Motion says he will stick with the BlackBerry company despite founder Mike Lazaridis' announcement that he will leave the firm.
Prem Watsa, a board member who owns 10 per cent of the company, first became interested in RIM because of his friendship with Lazaridis.
The 52-year-old Lazaridis last month announced plans to leave RIM at the start of May. He stepped down as co-chief executive in January 2012, but stayed on as vice-chairman and a board director.
Watsa said yesterday at his annual meeting for Fairfax Financial Holdings that chief executive Thorsten Heins had done a great job since taking over last year, and he expected the company would do well over time.
He has called Lazaridis a technical genius who invented the modern smartphone and said he will be missed.
"Mike very simply said to us that he was tired. He had a ton of work. He's going to be a big supporter of the company. He's not going to sell his shares," Watsa said.
"He chose Thorsten Heins to be chief executive and Thorsten has done an outstanding job in the last year and continues to."
Watsa said he's a "big supporter" of Heins and called his promotion the right decision a year ago. He also said he's excited about the new BlackBerry 10 operating system.
The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, had been the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people and other consumers before the iPhone debuted in 2007 and showed that phones can handle much more than email and phone calls.
RIM faced numerous delays modernising its operating system with the BlackBerry 10. During that time, it had to cut more than 5000 jobs.
RIM surprised Wall Street last month by returning to profitability and shipping about one million new touch-screen BlackBerry Z10 phones in the most recent quarter, which ended on March 2.
It will take several quarters, though, to know whether RIM is on a path toward a successful turnaround.
AP