TORONTO: BlackBerry Ltd. reported a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion, in line with a warning it gave last week, just days after the smartphone maker accepted its largest shareholder’s tentative $4.7 billion bid to take it private.
The report showed Blackberry turned in a particularly limp performance in Latin America, a region it recently touted as a enthusiastic supporter of its devices.
The company, which warned on Sept. 20 that the poor results were coming, said its net loss for the second quarter, ended on Aug. 31, was $965 million, or $1.84 a share.
Revenue fell 45 percent from a year earlier to $1.6 billion, and BlackBerry’s cash pile — made up of cash and equivalents, short and long-term investments — fell by more than $500 million to $2.57 billion.
Its shares were little changed by early afternoon. Investors absorbed the shock of the drastic revenue decline last Friday, when a pre-announcement about the dismal results slashed 17 percent from the Canadian company’s market value.
The loss included a writedown of about $934 million for unsold Z10 phones, a touchscreen model that the company had hoped would reverse its fading fortunes. The phone has sold badly with businesses and consumers alike.
“This write-off is very real,” said Morningstar analyst Brian Colello. “They bought a lot of inventory hoping to sell it. The auditors were not convinced that BlackBerry can sell it or sell it at prices that the company was hoping for. We see no reason to be more optimistic than them.”
The sharpest decline in BlackBerry’s sales came in Latin America. After four quarters of revenues of around half a billion dollars in that region, sales sank to $196 million. In previous quarters BlackBerry had said Venezuela was a strong market. The company does not provide sales data beyond the regional view.
Excluding the Z10 writedown and restructuring costs, BlackBerry reported a loss of $248 million, or 47 cents a share. It gave no forecasts for its current quarter.
BlackBerry plans to shed 4,500 jobs, or more than one-third of its workforce, as it shrinks to focus on corporate and government customers. It did not host the typical post-results call for investors after signing a tentative $9-a-share agreement to be acquired and taken private by a consortium led by Fairfax Financial, its largest shareholder, on Monday.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company’s steep revenue decline and mounting losses have revived fears that BlackBerry, a pioneer in the smartphone sector, faces an ignominious death.
“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,” Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said in the earnings statement.
BlackBerry said Heins was not available for an interview.
The company said it had sold 5.9 million mostly older-model phones in the quarter but only recognized revenue from 3.7 million, given that many sales had already been booked. By contrast, Apple Inc. AAPL.O sold 9 million of its new iPhone 5c and 5s models in the three days after it was launched.
BlackBerry, which in June said subscriber numbers fell to 72 million from 76 million in the previous quarter, did not update the number this quarter. It has said the figures do not capture all BlackBerry users.
Shares of BlackBerry were up 1.6 percent at $8.08 at midday on Friday. The stock remains below Fairfax’s $9 bid price, indicating doubt that the deal will be completed or a rival offer emerge.
BlackBerry said last week it would no longer market its devices to consumers, instead focusing on the professional users that brought it its first success and won the little devices the moniker “Crackberry” for their addictive nature.
That retreat from the consumer market has already had an impact. Telecom operator T-Mobile US Inc. said it would no longer stock the devices in its stores, instead shipping them to anyone who came in to order a BlackBerry.
Sprint Corp. S.N, one of T-Mobile’s larger rivals, said it will take a “wait-and-see” approach.
One of BlackBerry’s main contract manufacturers, Jabil Circuit Inc. JBL.N, said it probably would part ways with the company, its second-largest customer.
BlackBerry confirms deep loss and revenue drop
BlackBerry confirms deep loss and revenue drop
Oil surges as Iran conflict disrupts Middle Eastern supply flow
SINGAPORE: Oil prices surged by as much as 13 percent on Monday after shipping in the crucial Strait of Hormuz was disrupted by retaliatory Iranian attacks following initial bombing by Israel and the US that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Brent crude futures rose to as much as $82.37 a barrel, the highest since January 2025, before retreating to be up $5.41, or 7.4 percent, to $78.28 by 09:05 am Saudi time.
US West Texas Intermediate crude climbed to an intraday high of $75.33, up over 12 percent and the highest since June, though it later pared gains and was up $4.74, or 7.1 percent, at $71.76.
Both benchmarks jumped as a sustained exchange of counterattacks damaged tankers and sharply disrupted shipmentsin the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway between Iran and Oman that connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea.
On a typical day, ships carrying oil equal to about one-fifth of global demand from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait sail through the Strait along with tankers hauling diesel and jet fuel and gasoline and other products from their refineries to major Asian markets including China and India.
“Markets are acknowledging the seriousness of the conflict, but are also signalling that, for now, this is a geopolitical shock, not a systemic crisis,” said Priyanka Sachdeva, senior analyst at Phillip Nova.
Prolonged effective closure of the Strait would push oil prices higher and cause shortages in supply to top importers China and India.
More than 200 vessels including oil and liquefied gas tankers have dropped anchor outside the Strait, shipping data showed on Sunday. Three tankers were damaged and one seafarer was killed in attacks on Sunday in Gulf waters.
Asian economies are assessing oil stockpile availability and ways to secure alternative supply. South Korea will offer petroleum from its stockpiles to local industries if supply disruptions are prolonged, while India is exploring alternative shipping routes.
PRICES PARE GAINS
Still, prices pared gains after the steep surge in early Asian trade, which analysts attributed to buyers already factoring a risk premium into prices in anticipation of the conflict.
Brent had risen over 19 percent this year until Friday’s close, while WTI was trading about 17 percent higher.
Amid the conflict, OPEC+ agreedon Sunday to a modest oil output boost of 206,000 barrels per day for April. Every OPEC+ producer is essentially producing at capacity except for Saudi Arabia, RBC Capital analyst Helima Croft said.
The International Energy Agency is in touch with major producers in the Middle East, director Fatih Birol said on Sunday. The energy watchdog coordinates the release of strategic petroleum reserves from developed countries during emergencies.
Globally, visible oil inventories stood at 7.827 million barrels, enough for 74 days of demand, which is near a historical median, Goldman Sachs wrote in a note.
Citi analysts expect Brent to trade between $80 and $90 a barrel this week amid the ongoing conflict.
“Our baseline view is that the Iranian leadership changes, or that the regime changes sufficiently as to stop the war within 1-2 weeks, or the US decides to de-escalate having seen a change in leadership and set back Iran's missiles and nuclear program over the same time frame,” Citi analysts led by Max Layton wrote.
Analysts are also warning retail gasoline prices in the US, the world’s biggest fuel consumer, may break above $3 a gallon because of the conflict, a potentially risky result for President Donald Trump and his Republican Party ahead of midterm elections this November.
US gasoline futures surged by as much as 9.1 percent to $2.496 a gallon, their highest since July 2024, and were last at $2.381 a gallon, up 4.2 percent.
