BlackBerry records profit for the quarter to end-February

BlackBerry reported a profit for the quarter to February 28, 2015 (its fiscal Q4) of US$28 million, compared with a prior-year loss of US$423 million, on revenue of US$660 million, down from US$976 million. On an operating level, it narrowed its loss to US$106 million from US$537 million.

The company saw investment income of US$115 million related to the sale of its stake in the Rockstar patent venture.

It noted that in the quarter, it saw a “normalised positive cash flow” of US$76 million, compared with US$784 million cash used in the same quarter last year.

BlackBerry also had a cash and investments balance of US$3.27 billion at the end of the period, up US$608 million year-on-year, and “matching the highest balance in company history”.

Revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 42 per cent hardware, 47 per cent services, and 10 per cent software.

Software revenue was up 20 per cent year-on-year to US$67 million, an encouraging move given the company’s ongoing transition to a more software-driven revenue stream, away from its more traditional hardware- and services-driven model.

During the quarter, it recognised hardware revenue on approximately 1.3 million BlackBerry smartphones – with approximately 1.6 million sold through to end customers.

As the company refreshed its devices portfolio, it has also seen its average selling price increase to US$211, compared with US$180 in the earlier sequential quarter.

BlackBerry noted a number of positives for the fourth quarter, including the launch of its Classic smartphone, a partnership with Google to support Android for Work, and completion of its Secusmart acquisition.

For the full year, net loss was US$304 million, compared with US$5.87 billion in the year to March 2014, on revenue of US$3.34 billion, down from US$6.81 billion.