BlackBerry Ltd (BBRY) Is Toast, Says Gary Vaynerchuk

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is toast, if you ask Gary Vaynerchuk of Vaynermedia.

In an interview with Betty Liu on Bloomberg’s In The Loop, the investor painted a very grim picture for the once-mighty Canadian handsets maker.

“I say, ‘see you later John Chen.’ […] Applause to the hustle and at least action to try to go in the right direction. Ultimately though, I think that ship has sailed. At the end of the day, the consumer dictates these outcomes, and I just don’t see the movement at the end consumer level,” he said.

Furthermore, the Vaynermedia cofounder and CEO whose early investments include Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Uber, Inc., and Tumblr, Inc. which was later acquired by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) said that he doesn’t see ability of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) “to really innovate” especially in the coming three years in order to get back on track and have a fighting chance.

Nonetheless, he did say that there is always the possibility that BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) may just say goodbye to the consumer-facing side of its business and focus solely on business-to-business services. However, Vaynerchuk said that people are still trying to figure out whether the company can actually build a business solely on business-to-business services.

He also revealed that he thinks that the expectation for the stock and the current value of BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)’s stock still has a lot of “consumer” built into it. If the company pivots to become solely business-to-business, the valuation may be off, Vaynerchuk said.

Meanwhile, Vaynerchuk also brushed aside compliments given by former BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins to CEO John Chen and his team. He also noted that BlackBerry may just be better off if it sold itself.

“I think a good exit is some patent or technology acquisitions for somebody who’s got some other rationale behind it. I’m just super not bullish on it,” he said.

BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) counts Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings as its biggest institutional investor. The firm reported about 46.65 million BlackBerry shares by the end of the third quarter.