News
Canadian smartphone pioneer reports $238 million net loss on restructuring charges.
BlackBerry on Friday reported a fiscal fourth-quarter net loss of US$238 million (€209.22 million), as revenue slumped 29% year-on-year.
The Canada-based smartphone pioneer, which is reshaping itself as an enterprise mobility specialist, generated revenue of $464 million in the three months to 29 February, down from $660 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
BlackBerry’s operating loss widened year-on-year to $241 million from $106 million, and it swung to a $238 million net loss, from a profit of $28 million, due to one-off charges driven mainly by restructuring and acquisition costs.
Software and services accounted for 32% of BlackBerry’s revenue, while hardware accounted for 39%. Subscriptions, which BlackBerry calls service access fees (SAFs), accounted for the remaining 29%.
BlackBerry did not confirm how many devices it shipped in the fourth quarter; however, it emerged during the results call that shipments came in at 600,000 units. This compares to volumes of 1.2 million in the same quarter a year earlier.
"Device volumes were below our expectations," admitted BlackBerry CEO John Chen, on the call.
BlackBerry’s current crop of handsets, such as the Leap and its Android-powered Priv, have been well received, but there have been problems with distribution, he said, including contract negotiations with carriers such as Verizon.
Nonetheless, he insisted that the company’s device business is on track to break even or turn a profit during its current fiscal year, 2017.
"Overall, BlackBerry’s Q4 performance was solid as we made progress on the key elements of our strategy, which are to grow software faster than the mobility software market, achieve device profitability and generate positive free cash flow," Chen said, in a statement.
For the full year, BlackBerry generated revenue of $2.16 billion, down from $3.34 billion in the previous year. Net loss narrowed to $208 million from $304 million.
"Looking to FY 2017, our strategy is on track and our growth engines are in place to continue to generate above market growth in software and achieve our profitability objectives," Chen said.
