[primusd]

And here I thought Cherry Mobile was about to buy BB...!!

Cherry Mobile to buy BlackBerry, forms Cherry Berry brand - YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews

[CDM76]

The article has 4 key points FYI. However I cannot verify the reliability of the article.

1. ios, Android and Windows are just not reliable. A more reliable OS is needed for the government and enterprise market in China.
2. Huawei already has its BYOD solution ready. However, as its current OS EMUI ROM is based on Android, Huawei finds it hard to sell this solution to government and enterprise customers.
3. Huawei and Blackberry can complement each other. Blackberry can enter the China market, while Huawei can learn from Blackberry as Blackberry has vast experience in the enterprise market and mobile security.
4. As this is not a takeover, no approval is needed from the Canadian gov or the US gov.

The article also said Lenovo will be the biggest loser of this partnership.

Posted via CB10

And of course this article wouldn't be an April fools joke.....

Posted via CB10

[jake simmons3]

Im so confused at this article , it sounds like they bought BBRY lol

[laketrout73]

The article has 4 key points FYI. However I cannot verify the reliability of the article.

1. ios, Android and Windows are just not reliable. A more reliable OS is needed for the government and enterprise market in China.
2. Huawei already has its BYOD solution ready. However, as its current OS EMUI ROM is based on Android, Huawei finds it hard to sell this solution to government and enterprise customers.
3. Huawei and Blackberry can complement each other. Blackberry can enter the China market, while Huawei can learn from Blackberry as Blackberry has vast experience in the enterprise market and mobile security.
4. As this is not a takeover, no approval is needed from the Canadian gov or the US gov.

The article also said Lenovo will be the biggest loser of this partnership.

Posted via CB10

Would not the simplest solution be for BlackBerry to license BB10 to Huawei in conjunction with BES12 marketing agreements with Chinese carriers?

...or would that level of access to the OS be too much for western governments to tolerate?

Q10SQN100-1/10.3.1.2267 | Bell | via CB10

[CDM76]

Would not the simplest solution be for BlackBerry to license BB10 to Huawei in conjunction with BES12 marketing agreements with Chinese carriers?

...or would that level of access to the OS be too much for western governments to tolerate?

Q10SQN100-1/10.3.1.2267 | Bell | via CB10

I think the simplest solution would be to look at a calendar....

Posted via CB10

[Soumaila Somtore]

Sorry I might be wrong but I do not believe in this (news) nor the spike that you are talking about. this article seems to me more like false rumor of take-over than any partnership.

Ok guys, the spike you have seen just now in the chart was due to a Chinese article saying Blackberry will let Huawei run its business in China.

????????????? ?????? - ???

Posted via CB10

[jojowan]

Would not the simplest solution be for BlackBerry to license BB10 to Huawei in conjunction with BES12 marketing agreements with Chinese carriers?

...or would that level of access to the OS be too much for western governments to tolerate?

Q10SQN100-1/10.3.1.2267 | Bell | via CB10

There are no details in the article on what kind of partnership it will be like.

Anyway, this article doesn't look like an April fool joke to me. If you just look at the header, it really seems like Huawei has made an offer to acquire Blackberry. However, if you read into the details, the article is just talking about a potential partnership in China, which makes more sense to me.

Posted via CB10

[jojowan]

Sorry I might be wrong but I do not believe in this (news) nor the spike that you are talking about. this article seems to me more like false rumor of take-over than any partnership.

As the article already states that this will not be a takeover and a takeover will not be possible, why do you think this is a "false rumor of take over"? Also my native language is Chinese so I believe my translation is correct. Of course I cannot verify the reliability of the article but you cannot deny that Blackberry really needs such a partnership if they really want to explore/enter the Chinese market.

Posted via CB10

[digitalsurfboard]

i could be totally wrong but my understanding is that "partnering" with a company in China isn't all that palatable.

partnering is the only way to sell your stuff. your chinese "partner" gets access to a lot of your intellectual property. which is then easily funneled to the government.

again i could be wrong. but that's what i gather from a buddy that works in regulatory affairs at GE. GE bent over to get access to the chinese market.

[Superfly_FR]

Apart from the silly name-calling (which I'm not attributing to you), I think it's possible for us to disagree on BlackBerry's strategy in this particular without either of us being trolls or goblins or orcs or even orcas. I think you are probably right in saying that BlackBerry won't spend much money on marketing/advertising devices. I've said the same. The difference of opinion is obviously concerning whether this is a good idea. I have criticised it not because I want BlackBerry to waste money, but because I actually think they are going to lose themselves money with this approach. I think it would be highly wasteful for them to commence an all out advertising blitz using all available mediums, but I think the other extreme, which is what they are doing, is the second worst option. They've already lost almost all presence in shops, so they need to at least help people to be aware that their wares are in existence - again, not billions and billions in ads, but at least some targeted ads in key areas so that the average person has a chance to know that these new devices have been released. Even a small handful of highly visible billboards in high traffic areas of key cities would be infinitely better than nothing. That's all I'm saying, not that they should be utterly reckless.

Posted via CB10

Discussion always tend to make - us - people smarter
About your argumentation, i'm for one OK with more presence to public eyes. Yet, latest carriers infos about Classic and Passport tend to validate another option: favorise channels (read: spend money to bring back loyalty) to gain exposure that will lead to devices sales. As for now, one may believe there's no device to be seen in shops, still they are on carriers' lists and available for pros/enterprises.
I'm sure you cannot believe they've left empty any option to sell more devices. They do have 'promotional marketing', it's just not spectacular and eyes catching. (I even wonder if $211 ASP does not reflect that : massive incentives) .
That's not a 'halfway measure'; that's a budgeted commercial action.
On marketing and promotion front, half measures barely have a chance to succeed, IMHO.


Posted via CB10

[Soumaila Somtore]

Agree with this, I just don't believe the article (such news would have been all over the internet if it had legs) but that's only my twocents

but you cannot deny that Blackberry really needs such a partnership if they really want to explore/enter the Chinese market.

Posted via CB10

[woofster]

Interesting article today:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/former...183000130.html

The Former Tech Star That's Perpetually Shorted
StreetAuthority Network

The struggles for wireless communications firm BlackBerry Ltd (Nasdaq: BBRY) have been underway for years.

In early 2013, the company's business model was showing signs of stress, thanks to surging competition from Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Samsung, Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and others. Back then, short sellers held nearly 140 million shares, or an estimated 29% of the outstanding share float. As a group, they anticipated a major downdraft ahead.

Fast forward to 2015 and shares have fallen by half. Yet short sellers haven't booked profits and moved on. They now hold 95 million shares short, or 19.5% of the outstanding share float, making Blackberry the fifth most heavily shorted stock on the Nasdaq. A fresh look at quarterly results reveals why these short sellers still see downside ahead.

Stabilizing The Ship
To be fair, Blackberry's CEO John Chen inherited quite a mess when he took control of the company in late 2013. Revenues were falling fast, and a high cost structure led to rising losses. Chen is now more than halfway through a two-year restructuring process that is starting to bear fruit. Chen furloughed hundreds of staffers, and annual operating expenses have now dropped by more than $2 billion in the past two years.

Chen understood that the company's traditional hardware-driven business model was not sustainable over the long-term. He has been pursuing a two-pronged strategy: refresh the legacy phone and tablet computer products to help stabilize hardware revenues for now, while making an accelerated push into software and services.

Trouble is, hardware sales remain in freefall. In the just-completed fiscal fourth quarter, analysts expected more than $400 million in hardware sales, but the company only posted $274 million. A 35% sequential drop in hardware sales was a surprise.

Blackberry launched two new phones in calendar 2014, the Passport and the Classic, and both have seen weak initial demand. Few people now expect Blackberry to come up with phones that will reverse its steady decline in smartphone market share.

That makes the software division a crucial lifeline. Chen thinks that software can produce $600 million in sales for the fiscal year that began in March. Yet Blackberry had just $67 million in Q4 software sales. That slow start suggests that the company will not meet the $150 million quarterly run rate in the next few quarters, and will, therefore, have to greatly exceed $150 million in quarterly software sales later this year. The "back-end loaded" guidance is the simplest explanation for why short sellers are standing their ground.

"We continue to expect that BlackBerry will fall short of this (software sales) target, given a very competitive environment and BlackBerry's late entry into the market," note analysts at Goldman Sachs, who maintain a sell rating. To hit his target, Chen has hinted that Blackberry may pursue some acquisitions, but that just underscores the lack of organic momentum for the all-important software segment, on which Chen has pinned considerable hopes.

Another concern: "Services revenues are expected to continue to decline ~15% per quarter throughout 2016, which will more than fully offset any growth in Software," note analysts at trading firm MKM Partners.

To be sure, Blackberry's finances are in better shape these days. The company has $3.3 billion in cash ($1.5 billion net of debt, which equates to $3 a share) and Blackberry is now operating much closer to break-even. A $1.14 billion operating loss in fiscal 2014 has shrunk to a $62 million operating loss in fiscal 2015. Equally important, the company is no longer sitting on vast amounts of unsold hardware, and inventory levels are now much leaner than they were 18 months ago.

Yet stable and lean doesn't mean that Blackberry has made the case for a brighter future. Indeed analysts at Merrill Lynch see shares falling to just $6. They currently trade near $9. "Blackberry's long-term outlook is unlikely to improve given diminishing strategic options and fierce competitive pressure in consumer and enterprise," they write, adding that momentum from firms like Apple and Google is just too strong. They expect Blackberry to generate losses in each of the next three years.

Risks To Consider: As an upside risk, the company could look to sell itself to a larger technology or communications firm, though the negative operating momentum may diminish Blackberry's appeal to potential suitors.

Action To Take --> Consider this to be "Blackberry vs. the shorts: round two." In the first round, short sellers correctly identified this as a business in trouble. CEO Chen has stabilized a sinking ship, leading shares into a sideways trading pattern, but a further slump in the key sales segments leads short sellers to likely conclude that more downside lies ahead. If you own this stock on hopes of a turnaround, then you may want to re-check your bullish thesis in light of just-released, sobering quarterly results. For investors looking for short sale candidates to hedge their portfolios, Blackberry appears to be an appealing choice.

[bigbadben10]

Now back to our regular program

[randall2580]

The Former Tech Star That's Perpetually Shorted
StreetAuthority Network
30 minutes ago

The struggles for wireless communications firm BlackBerry Ltd (Nasdaq: BBRY) have been underway for years.

In early 2013, the company's business model was showing signs of stress, thanks to surging competition from Apple, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Samsung, Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) and others. Back then, short sellers held nearly 140 million shares, or an estimated 29% of the outstanding share float. As a group, they anticipated a major downdraft ahead.

Fast forward to 2015 and shares have fallen by half. Yet short sellers haven't booked profits and moved on. They now hold 95 million shares short, or 19.5% of the outstanding share float, making Blackberry the fifth most heavily shorted stock on the Nasdaq. A fresh look at quarterly results reveals why these short sellers still see downside ahead.

Stabilizing The Ship
To be fair, Blackberry's CEO John Chen inherited quite a mess when he took control of the company in late 2013. Revenues were falling fast, and a high cost structure led to rising losses. Chen is now more than halfway through a two-year restructuring process that is starting to bear fruit. Chen furloughed hundreds of staffers, and annual operating expenses have now dropped by more than $2 billion in the past two years.

Chen understood that the company's traditional hardware-driven business model was not sustainable over the long-term. He has been pursuing a two-pronged strategy: refresh the legacy phone and tablet computer products to help stabilize hardware revenues for now, while making an accelerated push into software and services.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: ]
Trouble is, hardware sales remain in freefall. In the just-completed fiscal fourth quarter, analysts expected more than $400 million in hardware sales, but the company only posted $274 million. A 35% sequential drop in hardware sales was a surprise.

Blackberry launched two new phones in calendar 2014, the Passport and the Classic, and both have seen weak initial demand. Few people now expect Blackberry to come up with phones that will reverse its steady decline in smartphone market share.

That makes the software division a crucial lifeline. Chen thinks that software can produce $600 million in sales for the fiscal year that began in March. Yet Blackberry had just $67 million in Q4 software sales. That slow start suggests that the company will not meet the $150 million quarterly run rate in the next few quarters, and will, therefore, have to greatly exceed $150 million in quarterly software sales later this year. The "back-end loaded" guidance is the simplest explanation for why short sellers are standing their ground.

"We continue to expect that BlackBerry will fall short of this (software sales) target, given a very competitive environment and BlackBerry's late entry into the market," note analysts at Goldman Sachs, who maintain a sell rating. To hit his target, Chen has hinted that Blackberry may pursue some acquisitions, but that just underscores the lack of organic momentum for the all-important software segment, on which Chen has pinned considerable hopes.

[More from StreetAuthority.com: ]
Another concern: "Services revenues are expected to continue to decline ~15% per quarter throughout 2016, which will more than fully offset any growth in Software," note analysts at trading firm MKM Partners.

To be sure, Blackberry's finances are in better shape these days. The company has $3.3 billion in cash ($1.5 billion net of debt, which equates to $3 a share) and Blackberry is now operating much closer to break-even. A $1.14 billion operating loss in fiscal 2014 has shrunk to a $62 million operating loss in fiscal 2015. Equally important, the company is no longer sitting on vast amounts of unsold hardware, and inventory levels are now much leaner than they were 18 months ago.

View photo
.
[More from StreetAuthority.com: ]
Yet stable and lean doesn't mean that Blackberry has made the case for a brighter future. Indeed analysts at Merrill Lynch see shares falling to just $6. They currently trade near $9. "Blackberry's long-term outlook is unlikely to improve given diminishing strategic options and fierce competitive pressure in consumer and enterprise," they write, adding that momentum from firms like Apple and Google is just too strong. They expect Blackberry to generate losses in each of the next three years.

Risks To Consider: As an upside risk, the company could look to sell itself to a larger technology or communications firm, though the negative operating momentum may diminish Blackberry's appeal to potential suitors.

Action To Take --> Consider this to be "Blackberry vs. the shorts: round two." In the first round, short sellers correctly identified this as a business in trouble. CEO Chen has stabilized a sinking ship, leading shares into a sideways trading pattern, but a further slump in the key sales segments leads short sellers to likely conclude that more downside lies ahead. If you own this stock on hopes of a turnaround, then you may want to re-check your bullish thesis in light of just-released, sobering quarterly results. For investors looking for short sale candidates to hedge their portfolios, Blackberry appears to be an appealing choice.

If you're looking for another company worth shorting, then look no further than Trader's Edge. The premium service uses a system of going long three fundamentally sound companies and going short three companies primed to drop. This has allowed us to capitalize on market trends no matter which way the market moves -- we even completely avoided the effects of the Great Recession. To learn more about this system, click here.

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/former...183000130.html

[BanffMoose]

...partnering is the only way to sell your stuff. your chinese "partner" gets access to a lot of your intellectual property. which is then easily funneled to the government.

Well now, if true, wouldn't that be the great FU to the US military that think "privacy" equals "security." Go ahead, keep on trialing the Blackphone and keep on modifying Android to "secret" level and what have you. Your "dragging your *** on BB10 adoption" and let's try or buy "everyone but BlackBerry" stance has been noted.

There's a term for that...karma.

[menshawy]

As the article already states that this will not be a takeover and a takeover will not be possible, why do you think this is a "false rumor of take over"? Also my native language is Chinese so I believe my translation is correct. Of course I cannot verify the reliability of the article but you cannot deny that Blackberry really needs such a partnership if they really want to explore/enter the Chinese market.

Posted via CB10

I'm all in for BlackBerry entering Chinese market. Such deal, if proven true, is essential for BlackBerry continuing growth specially after "failing" to get back it's place in USA market. I also thought of China as the first alternative to USA in terms of business

Posted via CB10

[sati01]

(I think there's some core threshold on hw sales they won't go below, thus as long as they keep making $ on each unit sold, hardware lives)...

BlackBerry is not making money on hardware. Gross margin is positive, but they still lose money.

[spiller]

BlackBerry is not making money on hardware. Gross margin is positive, but they still lose money.

Let's see next quarter. They aren't making BBOS devices anymore. 90% shipped last quarter were Classic and Passport. So expect this quarter to be almost 100% Leap, Classic, Passport. Need to see how much op ex is required to run this division with the new handset lineup.

[Glenn Biddle]

Is it just me, or is there an inordinate number FUD spreaders here on the "I support BlackBerry" thread over the past few days? I wonder why that is. Do you think that maybe they weren't able to push the stock price down as much as they thought they would be able to? There's an awful stench of desperation in all these posts.

Posted via CB10

[MollyMorton]

Is it just me, or is there an inordinate number FUD spreaders here on the "I support BlackBerry" thread over the past few days? I wonder why that is. Do you think that maybe they weren't able to push the stock price down as much as they thought they would be able to? There's an awful stench of desperation in all these posts.

Posted via CB10

I doubt that anyone posting on this site does so with the intention of 'push[ing] the stock price down'. We simply don't have the power to influence the stock market in any noticeable way.

Posted via CB10

[Glenn Biddle]

I doubt that anyone posting on this site does so with the intention of 'push[ing] the stock price down'. We simply don't have the power to influence the stock market in any noticeable way.

Posted via CB10

Well then what is your motivation , I hadn't really seen a lot of you here but all of a sudden ,making all kinds of negative posts.

Posted via CB10

[MollyMorton]

Discussion always tend to make - us - people smarter
About your argumentation, i'm for one OK with more presence to public eyes. Yet, latest carriers infos about Classic and Passport tend to validate another option: favorise channels (read: spend money to bring back loyalty) to gain exposure that will lead to devices sales. As for now, one may believe there's no device to be seen in shops, still they are on carriers' lists and available for pros/enterprises.
I'm sure you cannot believe they've left empty any option to sell more devices. They do have 'promotional marketing', it's just not spectacular and eyes catching. (I even wonder if $211 ASP does not reflect that : massive incentives) .
That's not a 'halfway measure'; that's a budgeted commercial action.
On marketing and promotion front, half measures barely have a chance to succeed, IMHO.


Posted via CB10

Yeah, you definitely raise some good points. I do still think that a narrow, focused ad campaign would be better than what they are doing, but oh well. What I was thinking was a sort of slimline international circuit. Say, London one quarter, New York (or another major city) the next. Nothing over the top, but well-chosen, high traffic locations for some billboards that would let millions of commuters know that the phones exist. Anything beyond that would indeed be wasteful at this point.

Anyway, I'll finish the evening by saying something positive. BlackBerry have actually priced the Leap properly. Thank goodness. It's on the website at �199 , which is an absolutely reasonable price. Well done BB.

Posted via CB10

[MollyMorton]

Well then what is your motivation , I hadn't really seen a lot of you here but all of a sudden ,making all kinds of negative posts.

Posted via CB10

I love BlackBerry. I also love my family, but when I think they are doing something silly, I tell them. To only tell them the positive things would be an injustice to them.

Posted via CB10

[Mr BBRY]

Is it just me, or is there an inordinate number FUD spreaders here on the "I support BlackBerry" thread over the past few days? I wonder why that is. Do you think that maybe they weren't able to push the stock price down as much as they thought they would be able to? There's an awful stench of desperation in all these posts.

Posted via CB10

I'd classify BlackBerry bashers into two groups. One being those who just want the stock to go down because they are short the stock and will benefit financially. These are mostly people looking at where BlackBerry was in the past vs where they are today and predicting things will continue the same way forever until BlackBerry goes belly up (back to Newton's law). I'd imagine people in that group would be open about their short position and would be more direct about the shortcomings of BlackBerry and their thesis as to why it will fail (i.e. past performance, declining revenues).

The other group are those who are shareholders in the red or have sold at a loss. Those people are likely to show a great deal of frustration towards the company (sound familiar?). It's one thing to always hate something, but its another to like / love it then to be let down and change your mind. That could easily bring out feelings of betrayal. Since most of us here know what it is like to be displeased with a company because their stock price, we should understand that feeling. The difference is, we all have a different threshold as to when we "give up" on a company and start trashing them. The lower the stock price, the more likely we're going to see more of this group in here and throughout the internet and media. I just wonder what will happen to them when the stock price goes the other way? Will they just evaporate?

NOTE: I am not a philosopher or psychiatrist. lol

[Glenn Biddle]

I love BlackBerry. I also love my family, but when I think they are doing something silly, I tell them. To only tell them the positive things would be an injustice to them.

Posted via CB10

To tell them, fare enough. To keep on saying it over and over, that's just plane nagging.

Posted via CB10