[Corbu]

Hi gang!
Just a weekend thought.
Let's not play the guy (Chen) as the only motor here. It's a team, with attack, field and defense players. Chen is the coach - a brilliant coach IMHO - and makes the lines move together.

What I mean by this obscure analogy is that we shouldn't personalize BlackBerry to a single person, neither for the good or bad. It's a team, in combat formation: let's remind nothing is possible without their collective strong commitment.

Heins may have exaggerated a little in that direction, at times heads were falling as leaves in the autumn.
I know there's still layoffs to come (I also believe they are less systematic and better negotiated) but, M. Chen, you tend to use "I" as the symbol of BlackBerry. I've noticed that from the day you've made your very first public statement.

Don't forget the guys, once in a while.

Hi Superfly,

Well said.

I would like to clarify my point of view since I am always on the lookout for JC oriented articles and news stories. I for one, do not believe he is a saviour or working in a vacuum. When I refer to JC, I refer to BBRY as a whole: management team, staff, customers and us, shareholders. There is no blind faith on my part insofar as JC or anyone else is concerned. My point is that we have collectively been a loyal, patient, resilient bunch. For this thing to turn around as we think it can, what we now need is a solid plan, a strong team and impeccable execution. And yes, a strong, competent leader. It happens to be JC at the moment. So let's find out what he says, what he thinks, what he does, as much as we can, since this has - more than ever and whether we like it or not - a direct bearing on where we will be 12 months from now.

Again, as far as I am concerned, JC is not alone in this venture. I am interested in him as I would be interested in the pilot flying the airplane in which I am sitting, fully aware that many other people play a part in - hopefully - getting me to my destination. We know what the destination should be, in this instance. A stronger BBRY. Let's hope we can get there!

[Corbu]

WhatsApp Rival Line’s Hefty Sticker Price
Mobile Messaging Service Needs to Justify Its Valuation
Japan's biggest mobile messaging service, Line, actually collects revenue but it needs a lot more than that to justify its valuation.

By Aaron Back

With Facebook having shelled out $19 billion for WhatsApp, anyone buying into chat apps should prepare for sticker shock. When it comes to Line, an Asia-based app, prepare for two of them.

Line, developed by Korean Web-search firm Naver, is the dominant mobile messaging service in Japan, and is becoming the top player in Taiwan and Thailand. Whereas WhatsApp is essentially a pure messaging platform, Line is ahead in coaxing users to pay for mobile games and virtual stickers.

Don’t scoff at Line’s stickers: 1.8 billion were sent in a single day recently. Most are free, but users pay a dollar or two for poses of, say, Hello Kitty. Some young users are giving up on words altogether.

Line’s revenue expanded more than tenfold last year to $545 million. China’s Tencent Holdings says WeChat and a companion chat app, Mobile QQ, together brought in about $95 million from games in the fourth quarter. Yet it has a much larger user base.

Naver’s stock has nearly tripled in the past year. Its core search and portal business is probably valued at about $6.8 billion, or 15 times estimated 2014 earnings, says Nomura’s Eric Cha. The remaining $18.2 billion of Naver’s market cap is the implied value of Line.

Line has 400 million registered users, up from 300 million in November. It doesn’t detail monthly active users, the industry standard. But Nomura estimates these are a bit more than half the total; 210 million implies a value of $87 each. That is about double the $42 Facebook paid per WhatsApp user but on par with estimates for WeChat’s valuation.

Some premium is justified given Line’s monetization prowess. Yet relative valuations assume Facebook didn’t overpay for WhatsApp, which is far from certain. Using the same assumptions, Line is valued at more than 33 times sales. It isn’t clear if Line makes a profit. To justify that multiple, investors must hope Line’s stickers and games aren’t a fad, and it has to add new markets. Indonesia, once a BlackBerry stronghold, is a big one that is up for grabs.

But given the glut of competitors, a lot has to go extraordinarily right for Line at this valuation. The biggest red flag in this industry is that sticker shock just doesn’t seem that shocking anymore.

WhatsApp Rival Line’s Hefty Sticker Price - Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com

[Corbu]

Well done, Mercedes!

[sidhuk]

Coming this month: BlackBerry Developer Indonesia 10.2.1 Roadshow | BlackBerry Developer Blog

[Superfly_FR]

BlackBerry announced today that BBM will be made available to Windows Phone and Nokia X customers in the coming months. http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/blackberry-announces-bbm-for-windows-phone-and-nokia-x-platforms-nasdaq-bbry-1881735.htm …

[Superfly_FR]

Nice John Sims itw : Interview: President, Enterprise - BlackBerryMobile World Live

"A very strong proposition" : BES12 and Q20 at the same time. (confirmed)

[Corbu]

Nice John Sims itw : Interview: President, Enterprise - BlackBerryMobile World Live

"A very strong proposition" : BES12 and Q20 at the same time. (confirmed)

Indeed.

From the last Earnings Call:

Another device announced at Mobile World Congress was the Classic, formally known as Q20. That’s the very big part of it. Our marketing people want to name it Q20. I named it Classic. We did a survey of one, that’s me and we won; Classic won. We are targeting the calendar Q4 for the Classic to be released. It probably got to be in tandem with the BES 12 releases.

[_dimi_]

BlackBerry announced today that BBM will be made available to Windows Phone and Nokia X customers in the coming months. http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/blackberry-announces-bbm-for-windows-phone-and-nokia-x-platforms-nasdaq-bbry-1881735.htm �

Press release is dated 24 February?



Posted via CB10

[cgk]

sensible anyway, they want to get BBM on as many devices and platforms as possible as quickly as possible.

[W Hoa]

Latest EDGAR filing makes it crystal clear what John Chen is up against.

[cgk]

What is that large jump in non-recurring? CORE?

[bigbbrybeliever]

Corbu -- I agree with you about the scarcity of stories with facts -- and depth. I think the story you quoted/linked above is remarkable for several reasons. First, it shows that Chen is carrying out a highly effective strategy that he himself described as having done right after assuming leadership of Sybase -- that is, he is traveling broadly to talk directly to corporate, government, and other leaders whose cooperation is essential for BBRY's survival. This obviously worked back then and I'm sure it is working now. Second, he's talking, listening, and strategizing in motion. He is not committing BBRY to playing out a series of pre-defined moves. Instead, he is reading the board, so to speak, at each move and playing it out accordingly. And this board has many players, not just two as in chess. He is revealing to more and more people that he is a brilliant strategist and competitor. Third, he is dogged. He seems ready to unleash a nearly unlimited amount of energy once he has determined the correct strategy and direction.

Finally, in all that I have read about him, he seems to consistently do everything possible to maximize the odds at each step of the way. Got a bad hand? Make your best move and move on, over and over again until it all turns out the way you want in the end. The vast majority of us can be so easily derailed by bad surprises or our own mistakes. He, on the other hand, just keeps re-assessing, strategizing, and then pouring a huge amount of intellectual and physical energy into whatever seems most likely to maximize the odds. This article underscores all of this.

A lot of the reason I've kept and continued building my BBRY stake is because of Chen's leadership. All I can ask as a shareholder is that he try to maximize the odds. I don't recall seeing someone doing this so effectively and relentlessly.

JXNB, Welcome back. As usually, I really enjoy reading your well organized, logically connected and facts based post.

[Corbu]

Francis Chou Triples His Stake In BlackBerry Ltd

The form 13 F filing for the quarter ended on 31 December 2013 for Chou Associates Management Inc. reveals that the value fund hiked its holding in struggling smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) from 185,000 shares to 529,040 shares. That brought BlackBerry up to to 1.19% of Chou�s portfolio.

[Corbu]

On the carelessness of some reports...

Extracted from The Record's Saturday piece:

There was talk last December that Marvell Technology Group, one of the world's biggest makers of computer chips, was going to buy the wireless technology unit. Chen confirmed a deal was proposed but it fell through for reasons that he won't disclose.

Found in several sources, since...

Chen stated that Marvell was interested in buying BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB), but the deal did not go through due to reasons he did not reveal.

[dusdal]

What is that large jump in non-recurring? CORE?

That was the big Z10 writedowns.

• C00087C61 - Non Traditional Premed
• C00039A66 - Van City Coffee, finding the best Lattes around our beautiful city
• C00124663 - Vancouver WhitecapsFC - A supporter and Capo's perspective
  • C0036EF56 - Bristol Rovers Football Club

[bungaboy]

Makes some sense.

�If anyone truly believes that acquisitions of the type of WhatsApp aren�t overvalued, they must be living in some form of parallel universe.�

‘Outrageous valuations’: Why tech stocks are writhing - The Globe and Mail

[notafanboy]

Another example of how on top of security that Microsoft is:


http://www.cnet.com/news/5-year-old-...ft-researcher/

A boy works out how to get into his dad's Xbox Live account without a password. Microsoft not only plugs the flaw but appoints Kristoffer Von Hassel as a security researcher.


Maybe BES should include managing game consoles.

Microsoft is a joke when it comes to security and the whole world knows it. I know this is not what Microsoft employees who frequently post here want to hear but it is the truth.

Posted via CB10

[notfanboy]

Microsoft is a joke when it comes to security and the whole world knows it. I know this is not what Microsoft employees who frequently post here want to hear but it is the truth.

You're the legendary mrfreetruth, aren't you?

[greggebhardt]

Good Grief, the bottom has fallen out. Some of us are glad we did not get back in on Friday!

Tech stocks are really in a world of hurt!

[jake simmons3]

Good Grief, the bottom has fallen out. Some of us are glad we did not get back in on Friday!

Tech stocks are really in a world of hurt!

There is no support for this thing

[BBNation]

Apple, Anroid was joke and still a joke in certain areas but the world is full of jokers so they are doing the right things to make money and grow the market share. The good things rarely make it far in the biz when manipulated. BlackBerry had it is run and over and now it is ms, apple and Google days. Few years it might be BlackBerry and others as time never stops.

Posted via CB10

[techvisor]

There is no support for this thing

True, BlackBerry could use some good news, but I think today is more about the market in general. For example, BBRY is doing about the same as Nokia, Google, and Amazon. Apple isn't faring much better.

[sidhuk]

http://bgr.com/2014/04/07/worst-andr...Genius+Report)


Posted using Z30. Best of the best Smart phone in the world.

[cgk]

There is no support for this thing

I take it the promised golden cross is what stakeholders get nailed to?

[cjcampbell]

I take it the promised golden cross is what stakeholders get nailed to?

Really man? C'mon. Many are down right now and you shouldn't really need to take a jab like that.

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