BlackBerry Ltd. has named John J. Giamatteo its new chief executive officer, the company announced Monday.

Giamatteo moves into the top job from his previous role as president of BlackBerry's cybersecurity business unit, where the company said he “has driven significant enhancements to the product portfolio, go-to-market strategy and organizational efficiency.”

"I am honored and excited to lead the next phase of BlackBerry's evolution as its CEO,” Giamatteo said in a press release.

"The board and I are fully aligned on the next steps needed to unlock the value within BlackBerry, and work on this effort will proceed at full speed.”

The executive shuffle follows the departure of former CEO John Chen earlier this year.

Richard Lynch, who had served as interim CEO since Chen’s November retirement from BlackBerry, will continue as BlackBerry’s board chair, the company said.

REACTION MUTED

Market reaction to the shakeup has been largely quiet, with the stock finishing trading on Monday 0.72 per cent lower.

Carmi Levy, a technology analyst, said he expects investors to stay on the sidelines until more details on what changes might be coming to the company emerge.

“The company’s trajectory hasn’t changed a whole lot,” he told BNN Bloomberg in a television interview on Monday. “We haven’t really heard enough to give investors a real specific piece of guidance about whether they should be bullish or bearish on it.”

Levy said he envisions the company could sell off its cybersecurity business, which is struggling.

“I don’t see anything innovative coming from that space anytime soon, despite what we’re hearing from the company,” he said. “It’s just not standing out.”

IPO CANCELLED

Prior to Chen’s retirement from BlackBerry, he had been working on dividing BlackBerry's cybersecurity operations from its Internet of Things (IoT) business, which he planned to take public.

However, the company announced Monday that it plans to “separate the IoT and cybersecurity businesses, and that they will operate as fully standalone divisions.”

“BlackBerry will no longer pursue a subsidiary IPO of the IoT business,” the release said.

With files from The Canadian Press