Possession of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB)’s old building in Waterloo was taken by Auvik Networks last spring, and the occasion brought back some old memories for David Yach, who said the feeling is similar as happens after former employees leave suddenly, says a report from the Globe and Mail.
Auvik’s Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Yach had previously served BlackBerry for 18 years. The last position held by him was that of the CTO, and he resigned in March 2012. Since his exit, BlackBerry has been through a bad phase as it could not stand the tough competition in the smartphone industry and hence downsized.
BlackBerry’s presence can be felt
The current CTO of the cloud-based network and monitoring company, says that the first day at office was a bit strange, “like one of those zombie apocalypse movies where you come in and all of the people are gone and their stuff is still there.”
Many signs of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) being there in the past can be seen for example, health and safety posters can be seen on walls, one of the offices has a whiteboard on which travel dates could be seen written with a black marker, which have faded by now, said Yach. Besides that both the office furniture and personal belongings could also be seen there.
Auvik has nine ex-employees of BlackBerry of whom Yach is one. Of those nine, five (including Yach) have worked in the same building near the University of Waterloo, known as BlackBerry 5. There are many start-ups based in Waterloo that employ former BlackBerry executives.
Wekerle acquiring BlackBerry properties
Mr. Yach has worked at six to seven BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) sites in the past few years, and Auvik building is one among those. Bay Street Financier and Dragon Michael Wekerle are purchasing few of those offices. Wekerle, which bought the first building from BlackBerry in February, acquired more BlackBerry offices recently, which were handpicked by Spear Street Capital, a U.S. real estate investment company.
Mr. Wekerle, in an interview, told that he plans to lower the pace of selling properties in the U.S., and invest in Waterloo to convert the city into a key Canadian technology hub.
