Blackberry reports $4.4 billion loss

Struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry on Friday posted a whopping USD 4.4 billion loss in the third quarter ended November 30, hit hard by poor response to its mobile devices.

The company, which last month scrapped a plan to sell itself, had posted a profit in the same period a year ago. "GAAP loss from continuing operations for the quarter was USD 4.4 billion...This compares with a GAAP loss from continuing operations of USD 965 million in the prior quarter, and GAAP income from continuing operations of USD 14 million in the same quarter last year," BlackBerry said in a statement.

The loss during the reported quarter included a non-cash, pre-tax charge against long-lived assets of approximately USD 2.7 billion, another pre-tax charge against inventory and supply commitments of approximately USD 1.6 billion, and pre-tax restructuring, legal and financial advisory charges of approximately USD 266 million, it said.

The revenue of the company for the third quarter of fiscal 2014 was approximately USD 1.2 billion, down by 56 per cent, from USD 2.7 billion in the same quarter of fiscal 2013. During the third quarter, the company recognised hardware revenue on approximately 1.9 million BlackBerry smartphones compared to approximately 3.7 million BlackBerry smartphones in the previous quarter.

"Most of the units recognised were BlackBerry 7 devices. During the quarter, approximately 4.3 million BlackBerry smartphones were sold through to end customers. Of the BlackBerry smartphones sold through to end customers in the third quarter, approximately 3.2 million were BlackBerry 7 devices," the smartphone maker said.

The company was recently acquired by Prem Watsa led Fairfax Financial Holdings for USD 4.7 billion and has undergone massive restructuring during the reported quarter. The new Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BlackBerry John Chen said: "With the operational and organisational changes we have announced, BlackBerry has established a clear roadmap that will allow it to target a return to improved financial performance in the coming year."

He said While Enterprise Services, Messaging and QNX Embedded businesses are already well-positioned to compete in their markets, "the most immediate challenge for the Company is how to transition the Devices operations to a more profitable business model." However, shares of the company were trading 16 per cent higher on NASDAQ in early trade.

"Handset shipments were much worse than expected and most were BB7 devices, but cash flow from operations was much better," brokerage Jefferies said in a note to clients.