BlackBerry has reportedly announced that the head of its BBM business, Andrew Bocking, was leaving the company.

Bocking, executive vice president of BlackBerry and head of the messenger service, is the latest amongst high-profile executives to leave the sinking smartphone manufacturer.

According to Cnet, Bocking was seen as an executive who could fit in with the new guard led by CEO John Chen.

BlackBerry declined to give out the reason behind Bocking's departure, only noting that it was his decision.

BBM was recently made available to third-party devices and raked in 10 million downloads within the first 24 hours.

The report said that head of global enterprise solutions, John Sims, would oversee the BBM group, which will remain intact as a unit.