BlackBerry surprises analysts with US$23m profit in Q1

19 Jun 2014

BlackBerry has surprised many financial analysts after the company posted its financial report for the first quarter showing a profit of US$23m.

In comparison, last year’s first-quarter figures showed BlackBerry appeared to be in decline as it posted a loss of US$84m.

Posting its statement for investors online, the company also saw its cash balance and investments rise from US$2.7bn in the fourth quarter of 2013 to US$3.1bn this quarter, and an adjusted gross margin from 43pc to 48pc.

This minor improvement in BlackBerry’s finances comes after a major restructuring effort by the company, having seen quarter-on-quarter losses of US$10m while its total revenue of US$966m is significantly down from the US$3.071bn posted at the same time last year.

BlackBerry has reiterated that it is not looking to move away from producing handsets and has recently agreed to a deal to launch Amazon’s app store to its handsets, which will bring more than 240,000 apps to the Blackberry phones in an attempt to emulate one of its biggest competitors.

John Chen, executive chairman and CEO of BlackBerry said that over the past six months, BlackBerry has focused on improving efficiency in all aspects of its operations to drive cost reductions and margin improvement.

“Looking forward, we are focusing on our growth plan to enable our return to profitability,” he said.

Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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