BlackBerry needs a tougher CEO, says Jim Cramer

BlackBerry’s annual general meeting tomorrow will, without doubt, see renewed calls for the company to sell itself. Mad Money host Jim Cramer, meanwhile, thinks the problem may be that BlackBerry’s CEO is too nice a guy for the job.

“I think the guy running the show, Thorstein Heins, seems like a real nice guy, but I don’t know if that’s really what we are looking for here,” said Cramer. “I suspect someone who can come in and break up the company into swallowable parts might be more worthwhile”.

Cramer says he didn’t like the idea that there were so many differing views from analysts ahead of BlackBerry’s disappointing Q1. He says this suggests management didn’t have control of the situation, “or it wouldn’t have let expectations get this far out of hand.”

Shares of BlackBerry toppled nearly 28% after its Q1 showed a loss of $84-million, or 16 cents a share, on revenue of $3.1-billion. The street had been expecting the Canadian company would earn 6 cents a share on revenue of $3.36 billion. Management also warned it would post a loss in its current Q2.

Cramer says the problem is that BlackBerry might not need a “nice guy” CEO. “Call me when it finds a Don Mattrick or Ted Leonsis, or maybe even a Meg Whitman,” he said.

Heins will be tested at tomorrow’s AGM, but prior to the BlackBerry’s Q1 he had earned respect as a competent and practical operator.

In March, analyst Jack Gold praised Heins. “He’s effectively managing the bottom line (still not done but he’s on his way), and he’s made a number of management changes,” he said. “The restructuring isn’t totally done yet, but he does seem to be remaking BB in his image of what it needs to be.”

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