BlackBerry quarterly results reflect focus on cost reduction

In a statement supporting BlackBerry’s latest quarterly results, CEO John Chen said the company has “significantly streamlined operations” as it looks to produce break-even cash flow results by the end of the current fiscal year.

BlackBerry reported reaching its expense reduction target one quarter ahead of schedule, and Chen said the company is looking to “maintain its strong cash position”, as well as continuing to look for opportunities to cut costs.

The company announced a loss for the quarter to March 1 of US$423 million, compared with a prior-year profit of US$98 million, on revenue of US$976 million, down from US$2.69 billion.

In the prior sequential quarter, BlackBerry lost US$4.4 billion, on revenue of US$1.19 billion.

For the full year, BlackBerry’s loss was US$5.87 billion, compared with a US$646 million prior-year loss, on revenue of US$6.81 billion, down from US$11.07 billion.

Reflecting the weakness in demand for its BlackBerry smartphones, around 37 per cent of revenue in the quarter came from hardware, with 56 per cent for services, and seven per cent for software and other revenue.

In comparison, in the same quarter last year, 61 per cent of revenue came from hardware.

BlackBerry recognised hardware revenue on “approximately 1.3 million BlackBerry smartphones”, compared with 1.9 million in the prior quarter.

It said that approximately 3.4 million smartphones were sold through to end customers during the period, reducing its inventory in channel, but of these the bulk – approximately 2.3 million – were BlackBerry 7 devices.