BlackBerry Ltd. (BB.TO, BB.N) Chief Executive Officer John Chen signed a new contract worth at least US$128 million to keep him on the job for at least five years.

The pay package includes 10 million restricted stock grants -- valued at US$128 million as of Wednesday’s close -- that will vest through November 2023, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said Thursday in a statement. Half will pay out if share-price goals of US$16 to US$20 are reached.

He’ll also get a performance-based cash award if the stock hits US$30. The value of the cash grant will be disclosed in the company’s proxy circular in May, according to the statement.

Since taking over in 2013, Chen has turned the company from a fallen smartphone maker into a smaller and leaner seller of security-focused software. He’s cut thousands of employees and got out of the phone business completely. BlackBerry has also become more aggressive in pursuing patent claims against firms benefiting from technology the Canadian firm maintains it invented years ago.

"As long as BlackBerry holds onto this position and is able to ride this wave into those next generation platforms, then somewhere around mid-next decade, BlackBerry could actually be worth more than it was ever worth in the past,” Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst of Enderle Group, told BNN in an interview Thursday.

Enderle said this would be especially true if the autonmous car industry, which blends into robotics, takes off. 

"Those markets collectively are thought to be substantially larger than the smart-phone market can ever be,” he said.  

BlackBerry shares climbed 15 per cent this year through Wednesday to US$12.80 in New York, after gaining 62 per cent last year.

Chen’s base salary and annual bonus will remain at US$1 million and US$2 million, respectively. Over the past two years, Chen, 62, has voluntarily requested that his cash bonus be paid in shares, according to last year’s proxy filing.

-- With files from BNN