BlackBerry Reports Loss, Revenue Drop
BlackBerry reported a nearly $1 billion quarterly loss on Friday, days after accepting its largest shareholder's tentative $4.7 billion bid to take the company private.
BlackBerry said its net loss for the second quarter ended on August 31 was $965 million, while revenue fell 45 percent to $1.6 billion from a year earlier.
The loss included a pretax noncash charge of about $934 million against inventory and supply commitments for its new Z10 phone.
The company is planning to shed 4,500 jobs as it shrinks to focus on corporate and government customers.
"We are very disappointed with our operational and financial results this quarter and have announced a series of major changes to address the competitive hardware environment and our cost structure," BlackBerry Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins said in the earnings statement.
"While our company goes through the necessary changes to create the best business model for our hardware business, we continue to see confidence from our customers through the increasing penetration of BES 10, where we now have more than 25,000 commercial and test servers installed to date, up from 19,000 in July 2013. We understand how some of the activities we are going through create uncertainty, but we remain a financially strong company with $2.6 billion in cash and no debt. We are focused on our targeted markets, and are committed to completing our transition quickly in order to establish a more focused and efficient company," he added.
BlackBerry said it sold 5.9 million phones in the quarter, but only recognized revenue from 3.7 million, given that many sales had already been booked.
The loss included a pretax noncash charge of about $934 million against inventory and supply commitments for its new Z10 phone.
The company is planning to shed 4,500 jobs as it shrinks to focus on corporate and government customers.
"We are very disappointed with our operational and financial results this quarter and have announced a series of major changes to address the competitive hardware environment and our cost structure," BlackBerry Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins said in the earnings statement.
"While our company goes through the necessary changes to create the best business model for our hardware business, we continue to see confidence from our customers through the increasing penetration of BES 10, where we now have more than 25,000 commercial and test servers installed to date, up from 19,000 in July 2013. We understand how some of the activities we are going through create uncertainty, but we remain a financially strong company with $2.6 billion in cash and no debt. We are focused on our targeted markets, and are committed to completing our transition quickly in order to establish a more focused and efficient company," he added.
BlackBerry said it sold 5.9 million phones in the quarter, but only recognized revenue from 3.7 million, given that many sales had already been booked.
