Russian Smartphone Maker Eyes Move to BlackBerry’s Backyard in Waterloo

A smartphone maker may be moving into BlackBerry’s backyard.

Russia’s Yota Devices is plotting a move to Waterloo or Toronto by the end of 2014, according to its CEO, who wants to take advantage of the thousands of employees that Canadian tech firm BlackBerry has laid off in the past couple years.

“Among those people there are brilliant engineers,” Yota’s Vlad Martynov told the Financial Post. ”What we do is we pick up those engineers and bring them to the company.”

Yota Devices plans to raise $100-million, the FP reports, and may even list the company on the Toronto Stock Exchange next year.