Blackberry's infusion of money towards healthcare company NantHealth is expected to begin a joint partnership to further advance the United States Department of Health and Human Services along with additional medical assistance programs Blackberry said in a press release Tuesday.
"This investment and planned collaboration aligns with the reliability, security and versatility of BlackBerry's end-to-end solutions - from the embedded QNX® operating system powering complex medical devices, to secure cloud-based networks, to instantaneous information sharing over BBM Protected," John Chen CEO and executive chair at Blackberry said in the statement.
"NantHealth is a proven innovator in developing leading platforms that allow medical professionals to share information and deliver care efficiently. BlackBerry's capabilities align closely with NantHealth's and this investment represents the type of forward-looking opportunities that are vital to our future."
"BlackBerry's expertise is incredibly valuable to NantHealth as we expand our platform and make it available for wider deployment through a secure mobile device," Patrick Soon-Shiong founder of the company said in a statement.
"The future of the healthcare industry requires the ability to share information securely and quickly, whether device-to-device or doctor-to-doctor anywhere and at any time. The potential to integrate BlackBerry's secure mobile communications, along with the company's QNX embedded technology, will put the power of a supercomputer in the palm of the caregiver's hand. Providing actionable information at the time of need will significantly improve the efficiency of healthcare and, more importantly, the efficacy of care for the patient," Soon-Shiong said in the statement.
Blackbe lost $646 million, last year, when its revenue significantly decreased 40 percent to $11 billion The Wall Street Journal reported. This year, the company lost four million subscribers and suffered another decrease of $84 million in the fiscal quarter that ended June 1.
Blackberry made a smaller amount of cuts over the summer from its sales, and research, and development departments The Journal reported. This comes just a year after the company let go 5,000 people.
Blackberry had 12,700 employees as of March, which was the last time it revealed a total number. Two years ago, over 17,000 employees worked at the company based in Waterloo, Ontario Canada. Blackberry also had control of 14 percent of the smartphone business. This has since dropped to less than three percent.
"The future of BlackBerry lies in creative opportunities like this that take our many core disciplines and combine them in ways no one else can match," Chen said in a statement. "Healthcare is one of the key industries in which we have unique advantages and this investment reflects our commitment to maximize our opportunities there."
