[bigbadben10]

Hello Possum!!! Dame Edna... OMG. That brings back memories !!!

Posted by my fabulous Passport

[Superfly_FR]

More on SEC
Regulators Probe Reuters' Report Of A Samsung Takeover Of BlackBerry - BlackBerry Ltd. (NASDAQ:BBRY) | Seeking Alpha

Usually when determining whether insider trading has occurred, regulators can check suspicious trading activity in a stock just prior to a major event just as a takeover, FDA approval of a new drug, etc. In this situation, regulators can also investigate the source of the leak and tie any suspicious trading to the account of the source or parties related to the source. However, I believe the BlackBerry takeover rumors are generating tremendous buzz and website visitors for certain media outlets, and expect these reports to continue. I would advise investors to focus solely on BlackBerry's earnings fundamentals though. I am long the stock.

[bungaboy]

More details on that SEC probe, from Reuters this time
SEC probes Blackberry options trading ahead of Reuters report about Samsung talks | Business | Reuters

I see a slap on the wrist . . . maybe.

[ibpluto]

More details on that SEC probe, from Reuters this time
SEC probes Blackberry options trading ahead of Reuters report about Samsung talks | Business | Reuters

My only comment to this article and the claims of the "suspicious" options trade (a call I assume) at noon that day. I was in on call options at that time and all indications were that the stock was likely going to rebound over the next couple days. 200,000 shares sounds like a lot but in options trades that's only 200 options and at $.10 per share for some that's peanuts. Many enter into a trade like that in hopes to get a 20-30% pop on the short term. Many options trades get in late just before expiry to get the cheapest options price (typically a couple days before expiry, which was what we were looking at at that time, based in the price he paid). Not saying this person wasn't on the take, but I almost want to say they were more lucky then not. Also, I suspect they got stuck with most of the options, as it is very difficult to move that many minutes before close. There was very little time to react to the news and the stock pop. I remember, because I was scrambling as well LOL LOL

CB10'n it....via da Z30

[rarsen]

OT from the Related Technologies and Security files. Anthem has interesting pointers after the fact. Anthem didn't even have your records encrypted (and lord knows they can afford to do so). Apparently, encrypting your data would have been inconvenient.:
On the separate iPhone spyware, the usual stuff. But this is impossible as not later than yesteday, someone was telling me that iPhones never have hackings???

Anthem hack: Seven ways to protect yourself right now | ZDNet
iOS spyware steals texts, photos, contacts, switches on voice recorder | ZDNet

[morganplus8]

My only comment to this article and the claims of the "suspicious" options trade (a call I assume) at noon that day. I was in on call options at that time and all indications were that the stock was likely going to rebound over the next couple days. 200,000 shares sounds like a lot but in options trades that's only 200 options and at $.10 per share for some that's peanuts. Many enter into a trade like that in hopes to get a 20-30% pop on the short term. Many options trades get in late just before expiry to get the cheapest options price (typically a couple days before expiry, which was what we were looking at at that time, based in the price he paid). Not saying this person wasn't on the take, but I almost want to say they were more lucky then not. Also, I suspect they got stuck with most of the options, as it is very difficult to move that many minutes before close. There was very little time to react to the news and the stock pop. I remember, because I was scrambling as well LOL LOL

CB10'n it....via da Z30

ibpluto !!!

Your math might be a little off there but I agree with your thinking, if there is a trade like this (200,000 shares equals 2,000 options at 100 shares per option) they would have determined where those options went in about an hour. I think they are more concerned with these constant claims by "persons familiar with the matter", i.e. the Jackie McNish's at G&M who always claim she knows more than Chen does. For years the media have claimed to have sources without any legal attachment to that knowledge. I look forward to any investigation that will help me protect my investment. They can start with the 100,000,000 shares that traded higher after the rumour, that's where I would look. Seems the short position rouse over the past few weeks so none of the shorts felt it necessary to cover their positions, I'd look there. As for Jackie McNish, send her to ISIS to do some investigating over there, she's a bum.

All of this nonsense has taken away from the fact that we closed above our 3-ema yesterday and if it stays above $ 10.04/shr at the close that's a confirmed change in trend, or so those close to the matter have claimed. Boring day, it's Friday, nothing happening, maybe this is why Chen has been so quiet lately?

[MollyMorton]

Hi guys...I was just wondering whether anyone had a reasonable guess as to where they expect the stock to be at the end of this year. Obviously it's impossible to be sure, but I would be interested in people's predictions, ideally with some basic reasoning behind them. Thanks!

Posted via CB10

[Corbu]

BlackBerry Ltd?s QNX claims supremacy in the connected car, but Google?s Android is gaining ground | Financial Post

Even before things started to really go south for BlackBerry Ltd., it was clear that its purchase of QNX Software Systems in April 2010 was a transformative acquisition. The deal gave Research In Motion, as it was then known, the basis for its next operating system and, vitally, provided a foot in the door of the emerging connected-car market.

BlackBerry’s decline over the next few years is well-trodden territory, with the once-dominant company’s share of the global smartphone market collapsing to 0.5% by the third quarter of 2014. But, unlike so many other decisions BlackBerry made in the interim, the acquisition of QNX was a success. The Ottawa-based company, which was founded by two University of Waterloo graduates in the early 1980s, had already established its presence in the global auto industry when it was acquired by Stanford, Conn.-based Harman International Industries in 2004. Harman greatly increased QNX’s presence in cars, making it an industry leader by the time the 270-employee company was sold to Research In Motion.

Today, thanks to QNX, BlackBerry commands more than half of the rapidly growing market for in-vehicle infotainment — software that manages everything from music and phone calls to navigation and weather forecasts in your car.

QNX generates only a small fraction of BlackBerry’s revenue — results for the division aren’t broken out, but “software and other” accounted for about 8% of BlackBerry’s total revenue in its most recent quarter. However, the in-vehicle software market is one of the only areas left where the company can claim supremacy.

“Not only is the demand in the individual vehicles skyrocketing, but the demand in each vehicle — how many systems can run on our operating system — is skyrocketing too,” Andrew Poliak, QNX’s global director of automotive business development, said in a recent interview.

He added that more than half of QNX’s revenue comes from the auto industry.

A 2013 forecast from the GSM Association of mobile operators predicted that the connected-car market will be worth €39 billion (about $56 billion) by 2018, triple its value in 2012, thanks to a sevenfold increase in the number of new cars with mobile connectivity.

And Mark Boyadjis, senior automotive technology analyst at IHS, estimates that there will be 400 million connected cars on the road by 2020, up from 82 million in 2014.

“More and more of these cars, from the high end to the low end, are getting infotainment systems that require a bona-fide operating system environment,” Mr. Boyadjis said in an interview.

“We’re forecasting QNX to remain the leader of this market through 2020.”

A good illustration of BlackBerry’s dominance of the in-vehicle software market is its ubiquity at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month. Mr. Poliak said that every booth within eyeshot of QNX’s location on the show floor belonged to an automaker that uses its software.

Although the average driver has probably never heard of QNX, it’s the platform behind the infotainment systems of most major automakers, including BMW, Chrysler, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Volkswagen. As of early January, QNX said its software had been deployed in more than 50 million vehicles worldwide.

BlackBerry scored a major coup in December when Ford Motor Co. announced that it had ditched Microsoft Corp. in favour of QNX to power the latest version of its Sync infotainment system.

Speaking at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last month, Ford CEO Mark Fields said QNX “will give us even more capability and intuitiveness in our Sync system” and threw in a little jab at Microsoft.

“[With QNX], you don’t have to talk like a robot to your car: ‘Play Bruce Springsteen, track Born to Run.’ Now you can just say, ‘Hey, play Born to Run,’” he said.

QNX also puts BlackBerry in the strange position of enabling the technologies of its chief competitors in the smartphone market. Apple CarPlay allows users to access their iPhone apps from the built-in dashboard display of their cars, while Android Auto does much the same thing for devices that use Google’s operating system — and QNX supports both.

“Once you start getting into ways to replicate your screen, it requires a lot more sophistication on the platform,” Mr. Poliak said.

“So consumer demand for connected devices is actually driving the need for advanced operating systems like ours in entry-level vehicles.”

This is another area of potential growth for QNX. The GSM Association estimates that 21 million vehicles sold in 2018 will have smartphone integration systems, up from 1.9 million in 2012.

However, collaboration and competition often go hand-in-hand in the tech industry, and connected cars are no different.

While Apple has shown little interest in developing its own operating system for vehicles, Android software is already making inroads through the Open Automotive Alliance, a network of technology and automotive firms focused on bringing the Android operating system to cars.

“General Motors was one of the founding members of the Open Automotive Alliance with Google, which is setting about making Android more relevant inside of the car,” Phil Abram, chief infotainment officer at GM, said in a recent interview.

And therein lies the challenge for QNX — GM’s OnStar service was QNX’s first big customer, but GM is also helping Android in its quest to establish itself as a dominant player in the same market.

Because Android is built on Linux, an open-source platform, Google doesn’t make money from it, but it would benefit from the increased penetration of Google apps in vehicles.

“Android and Linux … present probably the biggest competitive threat to QNX,” Mr. Boyadjis said.

According to an IHS analysis from June, Linux-based platforms will overtake QNX to become the leading infotainment operating system by 2020.

For the time being, however, BlackBerry’s QNX continues to cement its status as the dominant provider of in-vehicle software. Last month, LG Electronics announced that it would use QNX platforms to build a variety of systems for the global vehicle market, including infotainment, instrument clusters and advanced driver assistance.

And Mr. Poliak said there are plenty of other opportunities for innovation, including remote software updates and the ability to share your settings and preferences between vehicles so, for example, you could program a rental car to feel just like your personal car.

“We’ve got all this capability, which is exactly what car companies are looking for, that can really take us that next huge step from providing embedded technologies to helping [manufacturers] manage their vehicles in the field,” Mr. Poliak said.

The best part of this for automakers is that it allows them to adapt to technological advancements much faster than they’ve been able to in the past, said GM’s Mr. Abram.

“We used to have to guess what people would want five years from now and start building it into cars now,” he said.

“Now we have platforms that allow us to innovate at the speed of the consumer electronics industry rather than the car industry.”

[chrysaurora]

Just returned from a week long Amsterdam trip and very sad to note that I didn't spot even 1 BlackBerry 10 device

[anon(3066922)]

If you extract these numbers it looks very promising for the software cornerstone of BlackBerry.

Posted via CB10

[Ribes Nigrum]

Just returned from a week long Amsterdam trip and very sad to note that I didn't spot even 1 BlackBerry 10 device

Well that's the situation these days. In 2011 BlackBerry still had reasonable foothold in the Dutch market. Dutch apps on the iPhone, cheap Samsungs and WhatsApp just took the market from BlackBerry. It's just bankers, some stubborn lawyers and PKB users now who own a BlackBerry. The Passport is available though and the Classic will be too.

Posted via CB10

[Superfly_FR]

re QNX
add one more vehicle to the Fleet, Miss Superfly just got today her new Mini Connected, powered by our favorite subsidiary !

[Superfly_FR]

Just returned from a week long Amsterdam trip and very sad to note that I didn't spot even 1 BlackBerry 10 device

Probably a lot of Androids, isn't it ?

[Superfly_FR]

Hi guys...I was just wondering whether anyone had a reasonable guess as to where they expect the stock to be at the end of this year. Obviously it's impossible to be sure, but I would be interested in people's predictions, ideally with some basic reasoning behind them. Thanks!

Posted via CB10

Enf of year is far fetched IMHO.
Say, by March, if the roadmap is followed we should trade on a $11+ basis.
Add some spectacular (partnership announcement, QNX breaking the roof, ...) and then our bottom may sit closer to the $12s ...
But that's just a conservative yet absolutely speculative take, so don't rely on this
OTR : (yeah-sure, but I'd bet a beer )

[morganplus8]

Probably a lot of Androids, isn't it ?

Am I the only one that thinks that sex and drugs hampered his ability to recognise a BlackBerry?

[Ribes Nigrum]

Looks like we're dipping under 10 USD again today on low volume.


Posted via CB10

[Mr BBRY]

Just returned from a week long Amsterdam trip and very sad to note that I didn't spot even 1 BlackBerry 10 device

I agree it's rare to come by BB10 devices in the wild. I love to ask for random opinions of users when I find them, because I loved all of mine so much I can't understand why they haven't taken off with sales yet (especially the Passport, which I've yet to see other than mine).

Or you can keep on the hunt for legacy devices and rest assured when you find them knowing BlackBerry is collecting monthly service revenues on each one out there. Truth is, I just saw a 9900 being used by a VERY high profile / wealthy trader on Wall St in a meeting I just left. For me, the excitement if that a guy of this stature is STILL USING HIS BOLD... AND it's issue by his corporation (likely to all other partners / employees as well), which is one of the largest in the world! What better endorsement for BlackBerry is there?

Posted via BlackBerry Passport

[fedakd]

PSDV OT ALERT!

I have been lurking in the background here and reading some of the comments on the SEC/OSC investigation. I'll respond to this question before I tackle the big one! PSDV wasn't about earnings this quarter, they will start to see some traction in EPS next quarter but the real test is when they launch in the US at/near the end of March/2015. If you listen to the CEO of PSDV, he is very clear about the potential for this launch, he sees 270,000 patients at a $ 8.500/treatment, and as you can see, the numbers are strong. Those 270,000 patients are the ones that will benefit from the DME treatment (in other words, the 270,000 are from the 540,000 DME pool). And, if you do the math, the revenue could be extremely strong, that alone is a good reason to hold the stock. Then he talked about fast tracking and arthritis treatment with a prolonged injection delivery system for bad knees. This is a huge market. There are several other strong comments in the question period after the financial details so please take the time to listen very carefully to the questions and answers, they are very revealing. We are one or two quarters away from some very exciting news.

When I get another chance, I'll talk about the OSC/SEC investigation.

OT Alert!

Appears the time has come to build an even greater position in this company. I expect analyst upgrades after reading the Q&A notes after the conference call. The analysts were extremely impressed with PSDV. This company is exploring so many exciting avenues, and the revenue potential of Illuvien is astounding!

[MollyMorton]

Does anyone else think BlackBerry shareholders should get some kind of discount on devices?

Posted via CB10

[ibpluto]

ibpluto !!!

Your math might be a little off there but I agree with your thinking, if there is a trade like this (200,000 shares equals 2,000 options at 100 shares per option) they would have determined where those options went in about an hour. I think they are more concerned with these constant claims by "persons familiar with the matter", i.e. the Jackie McNish's at G&M who always claim she knows more than Chen does. For years the media have claimed to have sources without any legal attachment to that knowledge. I look forward to any investigation that will help me protect my investment. They can start with the 100,000,000 shares that traded higher after the rumour, that's where I would look. Seems the short position rouse over the past few weeks so none of the shorts felt it necessary to cover their positions, I'd look there. As for Jackie McNish, send her to ISIS to do some investigating over there, she's a bum.

All of this nonsense has taken away from the fact that we closed above our 3-ema yesterday and if it stays above $ 10.04/shr at the close that's a confirmed change in trend, or so those close to the matter have claimed. Boring day, it's Friday, nothing happening, maybe this is why Chen has been so quiet lately?

Sorry, forgot a zero... but your comment about the equities traded is also something I should have mentioned. that volume raises an eyebrow. Bunga at the time pointed this out.

CB10'n it....via da Z30

[morganplus8]

OT Alert!

Appears the time has come to build an even greater position in this company. I expect analyst upgrades after reading the Q&A notes after the conference call. The analysts were extremely impressed with PSDV. This company is exploring so many exciting avenues, and the revenue potential of Illuvien is astounding!

Hi fedakd !!

Thanks for taking the time to listen to the Q&A, I didn't want to go on and on regarding the details of the webcast that everyone could listen to themselves. I picked up my wife who was just back from Winston-Salem, NY, NY, & New Jersey and she heard some interesting news down there too. Her news relates to the hospital that PSDV is associated with for knee treatment. She was listening to me make comments like, "wow!" at least twice during that webcast and so we talked about everything afterwards. The CEO almost puts you to sleep, he is slow and deliberate but his statements are chalk full of great information. With my wife by my side, slapping me in the face by the minute to keep me awake, we listened to the whole thing again last night. Then today, we went over the details again and decided to invest more money in this one at $ 4.00/shr. I think we are at the tip of the blockbuster iceberg on this one. If only 5% take up the new treatment in the US, the stock is worth $ 15.00/shr. On top of that, the CEO is so pumped on future prospects from pre-clinical trails, as an investor, you have to be too. I don't think we will hear from an analyst for awhile, many will be buyers on low volume now. Remember, you can actually call and talk to these guys, very friendly. So glad you are following this one, a diamond in the rough today.

[morganplus8]

Sorry, forgot a zero... but your comment about the equities traded is also something I should have mentioned. that volume raises an eyebrow. Bunga at the time pointed this out.

CB10'n it....via da Z30

I don't know if I actually made my point or not, but you are totally right, the crime isn't to be found in the options trade, its in the stock trading side of the equation. I would have given Bungy credit for that point but I forgot he was the one that pointed this out earlier. If you lost a challenge to the SEC/OSC on the option trade, you would be fined, if the company was somehow involved, there would be civil damages later, but likely under $ 1 MM bucks. If however, its a stock problem, the cost to clear the companies' error could hit a $ 1B !! I have little faith in the OSC getting into the matter, but the SEC is a different animal and I hope they track down all of those trades and hold all of the windfall traders accountable..

[ibpluto]

I don't know if I actually made my point or not, but you are totally right, the crime isn't to be found in the options trade, its in the stock trading side of the equation. I would have given Bungy credit for that point but I forgot he was the one that pointed this out earlier. If you lost a challenge to the SEC/OSC on the option trade, you would be fined, if the company was somehow involved, there would be civil damages later, but likely under $ 1 MM bucks. If however, its a stock problem, the cost to clear the companies' error could hit a $ 1B !! I have little faith in the OSC getting into the matter, but the SEC is a different animal and I hope they track down all of those trades and hold all of the windfall traders accountable..

Totally got you Morgan, I think we are absolutely on the same page. I just some times make drive by posts on my Z30, and don't always make all the points I should. I just want to clarify I agreed with you and that what you pointed out about the equities traded being more suspicious than the options trade. I only mention Bunga to give him credit for pointing that out that day. Between you and others like Bunga this place is a wealth of knowledge.

CB10'n it....via da Z30

[bungaboy]

Does anyone else think BlackBerry shareholders should get some kind of discount on devices?

Posted via CB10

For what reason?

I don't get a discount on gas because I own Oil & Gas Company stocks.

I don't get a discount on my vehicles for owning stock.

I don't get cuts in my banking service fees because I own bank stocks.

Same for groceries, drugs, clothing . . . the list goes on.

How long is a piece of rope?

What time does the noon whistle blow in your Town?

[BanffMoose]

For what reason?

I don't get a discount on gas because I own Oil & Gas Company stocks.

I don't get a discount on my vehicles for owning stock.

I don't get cuts in my banking service fees because I own bank stocks.

Same for groceries, drugs, clothing . . . the list goes on.

How long is a piece of rope?

What time does the noon whistle blow in your Town?

About 10+ years ago, I called IBM's shareholder's services and asked if they had a shareholder discount code for laptop purchases and they gave me a code that I used to buy a ThinkPad online. I think it was shortly after they sold the PC business to Lenovo and Lenovo honored the code. Was it a shareholder code or an employee code, I don't know. All I know is I got the code from IBM's shareholder services and it worked.