[masterful]

It is a good start for a q1

? Slicing using my ?

[zzbsb]

Good news indeed. John Chen has proved he's the right leader for Blackberry. First the partnership with Foxconn and now with Amazon. We can expect Blackberry will do better and better. Though how much market share they can gain back is another question.

[sleepngbear]

Market share at this point is meaningless. The only hardware metric that's really significant now is being profitable.

One analyst quoted in an article I just read said if they can sell 1 million phones a month, that would be a nice niche for them. And that should keep the BlackBerry faithful happy, too.

[Playbook007]

BlackBerry is alive and well, and so is every other company that earns more than it spends. BlackBerry doesn't have to be the biggest. It just has to be the best. It should not chase the fickle consumer, but it should focus on enterprise and the portion of the consumer market that needs high end reliability.

Posted via CB10

[Banco]

The two biggest challenges were the app gap, and the perception that the company is doomed in the public psyche. Not the only two by a million miles, but the biggest two. Actually posting a profit (albeit with exceptional items) gives half a chance of changing the latter perception (most will do little more than glance over a headline, if that) and likewise the Amazon deal changes the former.

Doesn't mean all is fine and dandy in any way, but it does go a decent way to changing the sentiment - and that gives them a chance. It'll certainly deliver some new sales, though how many is open to question. And that reinforces the perception they are doing ok. It's a feedback loop.

[Troy Tiscareno]

Be cautious - part of the reason they did as well as they did financially in this quarter was not only the slashing of jobs, but also selling off most of their real estate. They went from owners to tenants, and that was a one-time source of revenue.

You can always make a balance sheet look good temporarily by selling off assets, but sooner or later, you have to start generating profits by, you know, selling goods and services. BB isn't quite there yet.

[FSeverino]

There is always a 'be cautious ' to every report by BlackBerry. I understand, but maybe they sold the holdings because they didn't need them. Less people means less needed space. There is no need to hold the space. So, yes, they got rid of people and space to help with the profit. But, in the least, this means that they will make the exact same profit next quarter, minus the income from the real estate. I think that is a good look for them.

It looks like Chen is aiming at about 750k phones per month, or other revenue from other services that are equivalent to that.

With two new phones coming out at the end of the year this is very possible.

Posted via CB10

[Playbook007]

Be cautious - part of the reason they did as well as they did financially in this quarter was not only the slashing of jobs, but also selling off most of their real estate. They went from owners to tenants, and that was a one-time source of revenue.

You can always make a balance sheet look good temporarily by selling off assets, but sooner or later, you have to start generating profits by, you know, selling goods and services. BB isn't quite there yet.

We all know it's not a done project by any means. However the sale of assets is a cash influx, but not a revenue reported number. Also most corporations are not in the real estate business. Sure they had all this land and office space. However they were not using it. So it becomes a huge maintenance costs, energy consumer and tax burden......huge.....which is an expense which does deplete cash and contributes heavily to losses. This was the downfall of the earlier owners/CEO's. They never controlled expenses. During the good days, the expenses were allowed to grow at an alarming rate, expansion continued as revenues fell! You must constantly adjust your expenses in relation to revenues. Chen is doing it right.

Posted via CB10

[app_Developer]

This is really good progress. Of course they still need to grow revenue eventually, but they have bought themselves a lot of time now. Having an outsider come in has been huge.

[Troy Tiscareno]

This was the downfall of the earlier owners/CEO's. They never controlled expenses. During the good days, the expenses were allowed to grow at an alarming rate, expansion continued as revenues fell! You must constantly adjust your expenses in relation to revenues. Chen is doing it right.

I agree with all of this. Chen is making the right decisions, and selling unneeded assets certainly makes sense. I'm just saying that it also gives a one-time bump to the bottom line that can't be counted on in future quarters.

[Banco]

As I posted in the news article, BB10 phones seem to have increased sales by 55% on the quarter. I'm sure the media will point out a continuing decline in overall sales, but OS7 is always going to drop, and nothing will arrest that. BB10 volumes going up by that amount is extremely promising - it only takes a couple of quarters of that kind of trend for it to become quite noticeable, and you'd hope the Z3 would deliver that.

[RubberChicken76]

You can always make a balance sheet look good temporarily by selling off assets, but sooner or later, you have to start generating profits by, you know, selling goods and services. BB isn't quite there yet.

Hopefully soon. Some positive signs.

[RubberChicken76]

This was the downfall of the earlier owners/CEO's. They never controlled expenses. During the good days, the expenses were allowed to grow at an alarming rate, expansion continued as revenues fell! You must constantly adjust your expenses in relation to revenues.

I don't know if I agree there. BlackBerry was never the kind of company to take on debts, for example, instead preferring to fund things and do things on its own steam. The staff grew as the revenue grew. And for all his warts, Thorsten was pretty good at operations.

The real issue was quite simply, business imploded quickly.

[LuvULongTime]

Be cautious - part of the reason they did as well as they did financially in this quarter was not only the slashing of jobs, but also selling off most of their real estate. They went from owners to tenants, and that was a one-time source of revenue.

You can always make a balance sheet look good temporarily by selling off assets, but sooner or later, you have to start generating profits by, you know, selling goods and services. BB isn't quite there yet.

If you take out the one time asset sell-off and job cuts it is still a positive story. The adjusted loss improved as did cash burn. See bolded sections below. With that said, I agree with you that they need to make money on an ongoing basis. If the below trend continues then they will get there.

GAAP net income for the first quarter was $23 million, or $0.04 earnings per share ("EPS"). The net income includes non-cash income associated with the change in the fair value of the Debentures of $287 million (the "Q1 Fiscal 2015 Debentures Fair Value Adjustment") and pre-tax restructuring charges of $226 million related to the Cost Optimization and Resource Efficiency ("CORE") program. Excluding these items, adjusted loss for the first quarter was $60 million, or $0.11 per share. These impacts on GAAP net income and EPS are summarized in the table below.

The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments was $3.1 billion as of May 31, 2014, compared to $2.7 billion at the end of the previous quarter - a net increase of $429 million. Excluding receipt of a tax refund of $397 million and proceeds on the sale of real estate of $287 million, the Company used $255 million in the first quarter. This represents a decrease from $784 million used last quarter, after excluding proceeds of $250 million related to convertible debt issuance. Purchase obligations and other commitments amounted to approximately $1.8 billion as at May 31, 2014, with purchase orders with contract manufacturers representing approximately $317 million of the total.

[TgeekB]

Market share at this point is meaningless. The only hardware metric that's really significant now is being profitable.

One analyst quoted in an article I just read said if they can sell 1 million phones a month, that would be a nice niche for them. And that should keep the BlackBerry faithful happy, too.

Well said. I know the faithful on here have dreams of BlackBerry taking on Google and Apple but that's not going to happen anytime soon. If they become profitable, concentrate on enterprise, and make a few niche devices for the rest of us they should consider that a success.

Posted via my Nexus 10.

[RH1Pearl]

So what's going to drive revenue in the 2nd Quarter? Passport and Classic won't be out until September. There are no more properties to sell. There's initial cost of producing the new phones. Even further layoffs won't bump up earnings as it'll cost more to let go of that staff this quarter. And then there's marketing costs. Gotta advertise to drive sales of the new phones. That $225m spent in the 1st Quarter could easily triple in the 2nd.

[Banco]

So what's going to drive revenue in the 2nd Quarter? Passport and Classic won't be out until September. There are no more properties to sell. There's initial cost of producing the new phones. Even further layoffs won't bump up earnings as it'll cost more to let go of that staff this quarter. And then there's marketing costs. Gotta advertise to drive sales of the new phones. That $225m spent in the 1st Quarter could easily triple in the 2nd.

Cost reductions and revenue improvements don't suddenly stop at the end of the quarter, it's a process not a standalone item. So if the trend is in that direction then there's no reason to assume it won't continue. If anything when a company starts to turnaround, it accelerates under its own momentum, particularly with sales where you see a feedback loop. If the Z3 does OK across different markets then there's every chance BB10 sales will show a further increase in the next quarter. It's all part of that same process of natural growth. Again, numbers are low, but the growth is positive. It gets noticed and changes the narrative.

[AthenaSmith]

It certainly was better than I expected. Glad to be reading all the good stuff that came out today. Hoping for continuous progress. Keep moving, BlackBerry!

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