BlackBerry reports loss as smartphone sales keep sliding
Company reported a net loss of $423m for the fourth quarter ended March 1 compared with a year-earlier profit of $98m
Toronto: BlackBerry Ltd reported a quarterly loss on Friday as smartphone sales continued to slide across all regions.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company reported a net loss of $423 million (Dh1.5 billion), or 80 cents a share, for the fourth quarter ended March 1. That compared with a year-earlier profit of $98 million, or $19 cents a share.
Revenue fell to $976 million from $2.68 billion.
Excluding restructuring charges and other one-time items, the company reported a loss of $42 million, or 8 cents a share in the period.
Analysts on average had been expecting a loss of 55 cents a share, on revenues of $1.11 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
The loss for the fiscal year ending March 1 amounted to $5.9 billion, a huge increase from the loss of $646 million a year earlier. Revenues meanwhile slumped nearly 40 per cent for the full year to $6.8 billion.
|
The company said during the fourth quarter it recognised hardware revenue on about 1.3 million BlackBerry smartphones compared to about 1.9 million devices in the previous quarter.
Weak traction
It also said during the period about 3.4 million devices were sold through to end customers, and this included shipments made and recognised prior to the fourth quarter.
The company said 68 per cent of these devices were BlackBerry 7 devices, indicating that traction around its new line of BlackBerry 10 devices remains weak.
The company, whose devices have lost ground to Apple’s iPhone and smartphones powered by Google Inc’s Android operating system, is for now focusing attention on its services arm that secures mobile devices on internal networks of big clients, as it attempts to engineer a turnaround.
Under the leadership of new Chief Executive John Chen, the Canadian tech firm is also putting the emphasis back on its once hugely successful keyboard devices.
Milestones
The company last year introduced the BlackBerry 10 operating system in an effort to regain ground lost to rivals such as Apple and others using the Google Android operating system.
BlackBerry unveiled a manufacturing partnership with Taiwan-based Foxconn and a revamped organisational structure. The deal makes Foxconn the manufacturer and allows BlackBerry to focus on software and services.
The company also announced last year it was slashing some 4,500 jobs, or 40 per cent of its workforce, as part of the restructuring.
BlackBerry at one point last year put itself up for sale, but later abandoned hopes of finding a buyer, and instead pegged its future on a $1 billion cash infusion.
The revenue breakdown for the fourth quarter was 37 per cent for hardware, 56 per cent for services and seven per cent for software and other revenue.
“I am very pleased with our progress and execution in the fiscal fourth quarter against the strategy we laid out three months ago,” said CEO John Chen, who took the reins in November as the company sought to revive its fortunes.
“We have significantly streamlined operations, allowing us to reach our expense reduction target one quarter ahead of schedule. BlackBerry is on sounder financial footing today with a path to returning to growth and profitability.”
