[Corbu]

Apple, Google and Wireless Carriers Asked by U.S. About Security - Bloomberg

Smartphone makers such as Apple Inc. and Google and mobile carriers including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. were asked by federal regulators to explain how they review and release security updates.

Vulnerabilities associated with mobile broadband have grown as consumers and businesses increase their use of the technology, the Federal Communications Commission said in a news release. The Federal Trade Commission said in a statement it wanted to know the factors companies consider in deciding whether to patch a vulnerability.

Consumers may be left unprotected by delays in patching security flaws, the FCC said. The agency sent letters to the top four U.S. wireless providers -- AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile Inc. and Sprint Corp. -- as well as to U.S. Cellular Corp. and TracFone Wireless Inc., said Neil Grace, an FCC spokesman.

The FTC said it had ordered eight companies to explain the process for issuing security updates: Apple, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, BlackBerry Ltd., HTC America Inc., LG Electronics USA Inc., Microsoft Corp., Motorola Mobility LLC and Samsung Electronics America Inc.

[bbjdog]

Blackberry closed the day at $6.58.

OT:

4:20 pm Halozyme Therapeutics beats by $0.06, beats on revs; guides FY16 revs above consensus (HALO) :
•Reports Q1 (Mar) loss of $0.16 per share, $0.06 better than the Capital IQ Consensus of ($0.22); revenues rose 127.3% year/year to $42.5 mln vs the $28.58 mln Capital IQ Consensus. Q1 revenue was driven primarily by milestone payments from Lilly and AbbVie, as well as royalties from partner sales of Herceptin SC, MabThera SC and HYQVIA.
•Co issues upside guidance for FY16, sees FY16 revs of $130-145 mln vs. $121.70 mln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate, and up from prior guidance of $110-125 mln driven by unplanned ENHANZE milestones and an increase in bulk product sales to ENHANZE partners..

[Superfly_FR]

http://crackberry.com/blackberry-mak...artner-program

It's not only about pricing, also a new (in the facts, hopefully) channel approach where VARS will finally find an easier path to scale and sell BlackBerry services and, moreover, have a better way to estimate margins and set action plans. I for one is one of those (tiny) ones and can't wait to see this in action.

Posted via CB10

[James Nieves]

http://crackberry.com/blackberry-mak...artner-program

It's not only about pricing, also a new (in the facts, hopefully) channel approach where VARS will finally find an easier path to scale and sell BlackBerry services and, moreover, have a better way to estimate margins and set action plans. I for one is one of those (tiny) ones and can't wait to see this in action.

Posted via CB10

Can't wait for that segment reporting....

Posted via CB10

[Corbu]

Blog - AtHoc - Networked Crisis Communication
In Brussels Terror Attacks, BlackBerry’s AtHoc Helped Officials Control the Crisis

[Corbu]

Our friends from the G&M on today's news...
BlackBerry?s new head of devices helped launch Motorola Razr - The Globe and Mail

BlackBerry Ltd. has put a 30-year veteran of Motorola Inc. in charge of its devices division in the latest executive shuffle of the Waterloo, Ont., company.

Outgoing president of devices Ron Louks was one of chief executive officer John Chen’s early hires: Mr. Chen became interim CEO of BlackBerry in November, 2013, and brought in Mr. Louks in January, 2014. Mr. Louks was a veteran of the handset industry and had been a chief strategy officer for HTC America Inc. and a chief technology officer of Sony Ericsson.

Under Mr. Louks, the company released six phones, although he can be said to have overseen only four: the Passport (2014), Classic (2014), Leap (2015) and Priv (2015).

The new head of devices has an even longer hardware track record: Ralph Pini spent 28 years at Motorola before he left in 2004 and was once chief technology officer of its Mobile Cellular Group. “I was a critical member of the team behind many Motorola products, including Razr, I have extensive knowledge of product design and customer needs,” Mr. Pini wrote in a Q&A BlackBerry posted on its blog.

Mr. Pini takes over at a tough time for the global smartphone industry. Reports from IDC and Strategy Analytics suggest shipments flat lined at around 334 million devices in the first quarter of 2016, and may have actually fallen for the first time in a decade.

Meanwhile, BlackBerry is hitting new lows in quarterly sales; most recently, it reported only 600,000 phones sold in its fourth quarter, which ended on Feb. 29. It has been six months since the launch of the latest BlackBerry handset, the premium-priced Android-powered Priv.

In April, Mr. Chen acknowledged that the Priv had been priced too high (it started at around $700 to $800 without a contract subsidy): “Softness in the high end of the smartphone market is a headwind,” he said. “That [price] segment appears to be quite saturated.”

Despite widespread calls by analysts for Mr. Chen to abandon the hardware game, he has indicated that BlackBerry will release two modestly priced handsets in the current fiscal year. They are expected to be built on a customized version of Google’s Android operating system the company has modified to approximate the security available on its BB10 operating system. The last new BB10 device, the touch-screen Leap, was released in April, 2015.

BlackBerry sold about 3.2 million devices in its 2016 fiscal year, compared with seven million in fiscal year 2015.

BlackBerry did not make Mr. Pini available for comment, but he did write in the blog post that his focus will include “expanding distribution beyond BlackBerry’s traditional channels.”

Mr. Pini has an interesting connection to Canadian corporate history: Toward the end of his career with Motorola, he worked with then president and chief operating officer Mike Zafirovski to turn around the phone division. When former CEO Chris Galvin was ousted in 2003, Mr. Zafirovski was passed over for the job in favour of Ed Zander. Even though the crowning achievement of their collaboration, the Motorola Razr, was launched in late 2004, both men left the company in the months following. Mr. Pini left in late 2004 to teach at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mr. Zafirovski came to Canada to be the CEO of Nortel Networks in early 2005.

Mr. Pini came to BlackBerry via his job as CEO of Paratek Microwave Inc., a radio technology company that BlackBerry bought in 2012. That same year, Google Inc. bought Motorola, only to break it up for parts and sell the smartphone division to China’s Lenovo Group Ltd. in 2014.

BlackBerry shares have been trending downward since March 7, when the stock reached a three-month high of $10.95.

[Corbu]

OT: HALO
Halozyme Therapeutics' (HALO) CEO Helen Torley on Q1 2016 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | Seeking Alpha

[kadakn01]

NantHealth, Soon-Shiong's personalized medicine company, files IPO

http://www.modernhealthcare.com/arti...NEWS/160509911

NantHealth, the information technology and personalized medicine company headed by billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, has filed for an initial public offering.

The number of shares and size of the offering have not yet been determined, the company said. It will trade under the ticker symbol NH.

The filing comes about six months after the Culver City, Calif.-based company delayed its IPO, citing adverse market conditions.

Yet it's not just the recent market volatility that can shake NantHealth. The company is forging a new model of care based on the idea that genomic analysis will one day inform how various diseases should be treated—a concept that's still in its early stages. And it has been operating with significant financial losses with questions over its long-term profitability.

NantHealth is building what Soon-Shiong describes as a “knowledge engine” that will use big data to help clinicians make better treatment decisions for people with critical illnesses. Its primary focus has been to change the treatment and research paradigm of cancer care. Soon-Shiong, who invented the blockbuster cancer drug Abraxane, believes that tumors should be targeted based on their molecular expression, rather than where they appear on the body.

Its products include the Clinics technology platform for data analysis as well as a molecular diagnostic tool, GPS Cancer, which aims to predict a patient's response to different treatments.

NantHealth has an ambitious mission, but the promise is still being realized. Some skeptics have questioned whether the company can deliver on its vision.

The company's IPO filing highlights a number of risk factors. Its business model is forging new ground in a still-evolving field. It will require vast amounts of patient data and a greater understanding of the link between genetic expression and disease pathways. And NantHealth isn't the only company trying to make money in this new space, which means its GPS Cancer tool needs to stay ahead of the curve.

Its primary competitors are diagnostic companies offering whole-genome sequencing, the IPO filing said. Companies such as Foundation Medicine, Caris Life Sciences, Personal Genome Diagnostics and even hospital research laboratories are developing tools for molecular testing.

Meanwhile, NantHealth is investing millions in research and development as well as marketing, general and administrative expenses. It also has made a number of acquisitions and expects to keep buying in the near future as a key part of its growth strategy.

NantHealth reported a net loss of $72 million on $58.3 million in net revenue for the year ended Dec. 31, compared with a net loss of $84.4 million on $33.9 million in net revenue for the previous year.

Its accumulated deficit was $291.2 million as of Dec. 31. Soon-Shiong did not collect a salary or any other compensation in 2014 or 2015, according to the filing.

The company plans to use the proceeds of the IPO to inject additional capital into the business.

NantHealth sells its software, hardware and mobile apps to healthcare providers, insurers and self-insured employers.

It estimates that more than 75% of oncology practices uses its Eviti platform to help match patients to clinical trials; health plans pay a per-member, per-month fee for the technology and then offer it to oncologists free of charge. NantHealth also has 450 clients using its NantOS software and apps, which collect and organize data from a number of sources, readying it for analysis. Finally, the company picked up new insurer clients through its January acquisition of NaviNet.

The company also is a founding member of the National Immunotherapy Coalition's Cancer MoonShot 2020 Network, which is seeking to develop an immunotherapy vaccine by 2020.



and for reference BBRY invested in them in April 2014

BlackBerry buys minority stake in healthcare IT firm | Reuters

[kadakn01]

2 more on this IPO, again value not yet determined.
NantHealth files for $92 million IPO | MobiHealthNews
also

CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NantHealth, LLC, a leading next-generation, evidence-based, personalized healthcare company enabling improved patient outcomes and more effective treatment decisions for critical illnesses, today announced that it has publicly filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock. All shares of common stock to be sold in the offering will be offered by NantHealth. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. NantHealth intends to list its common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market under the ticker symbol “NH.”

Jefferies LLC and Cowen and Company, LLC are acting as joint book-running managers for the offering, and First Analysis Securities Corporation and FBR Capital Markets & Co. are acting as co-managers.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the SEC, but has not yet become effective. These securities may not be sold, nor may offers to buy be accepted, prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy these securities, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. When available, copies of the preliminary prospectus may be obtained from: Jefferies LLC, Equity Syndicate Prospectus Department, 520 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10022, or by telephone at (877) 547-6340 or by email at [email protected]; or Cowen and Company, LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Services, Attention: Prospectus Department, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, or by telephone at (631) 274-2806 or by fax at (631) 254-7140.

[Corbu]

BlackBerry Remains Convinced Software Is Its Future

Carl Wiese tells TechWeekEurope why BlackBerry’s software portfolio means it isn’t going away anytime soon – even if hardware is still a problem

BlackBerry is convinced it’s on the right track as it transitions away from the smartphones that made it a household name, into a services and software company.

This is despite more layoffs, an apparent abandonment of the high-end smartphone market and results that missed expectations.

All change?

"You look at what we had to sell a year ago compared to today – it’s like night and day,” Carl Wiese, BlackBerry global vice president of sales, tells TechWeekEurope.

“We’re looking to fundamentally change what people do with mobile, and we want people to run their business on mobile – and that takes time, not only for us to communicate with the marketplace and build the capabilities, but it takes time to transform inside the customer we sell to as well.”

Wiese is naturally positive about his company’s performance. Despite the doom and gloom surrounding hardware, software and services sales doubled in the most recent quarter and now account for a third of BlackBerry’s income.

“Nobody thought there was a chance we could do it,” he says, noting that many commentators believed BlackBerry CEO John Chen had been too ambitous in setting targets for the company’s new strategy.

A large part of this turnaround has been down to some significant acquisitions from BlackBerry, namely the purchases of Good Technology and AtHoc. Good, with its iOS focus, has been a particular boon, as Wiese says the deal got BlackBerry into a place it hadn’t been before.

He says that Government, healthcare and legal industries remain major customer bases for the company, along with its traditional strong hold on the financial services market.

“Our opportunity, and challenge, is to get out of the regulated markets because we’ve been so focused on doing such a good job there…there’s no reason why we can’t, it’s just never been a super big focus for us,” he claimed.

Wiese also referenced recent figures that say BlackBerry has between 20 to 25 percent global market share in terms of software, making it number one in the market and two times its nearest competitor.

“Turnarounds and transformations are hard, and they take time – I don’t think there’s a magic bullet, unless you’ve got the iPhone,” he said.

More to come

Much has been made of BlackBerry’s move to Android in recent months, with the company’s Priv device, released last year, gaining critical approval but so far seeing poor sales.

However the company is set to continue its relationship with Google’s OS, with several mid-market devices arriving in the coming months.

This move will not affect BlackBerry’s software strategy though, Wiese said, as the company has a complete roadmap for its BB10 and BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES).

“There’s multiple releases of software in the pipeline, attacking productivity, security, and privacy,” Wiese says, noting that BlackBerry is “still in the market” for BB10, and is committed to at least two more releases of the software.

BES is very much still part of BlackBerry’s future too

“It’s at the heart of what we do,”, he said, stating BES 12.5 will arrive in May, with planned upgrades planned up to BES 14, which he says he arrive in 2017.

“[BlackBerry] is built on BES – nobody should have any questions about our investment in BES, it’s fundamental to what we’re doing.”

The message from BlackBerry is one of defiance. Even if it is under no illusions about the difficulty of transitioning from the de facto market standard in smartphones into an enterprise mobility software giant.

“For us, we’ve got to continue to be more methodical, take more business down, more opportunities…the formula is pretty simple, the execution is maybe a little more complex,” Wiese says.

[world traveler and former ceo]

BlackBerry Remains Convinced Software Is Its Future

Now.. to convince the markets, and others, as Short Sellers have been having a very profitable field day pounding your stock into the ground... you are trading at Book Value!!!

... Why do you continue to pour money into losing propositions like hardware? If Software IS the future, then just focus exclusively there!!

No one is buying your "profitability on Hardware Division" story.... and if you truly believe it will work then massively buy back your shares!... make a statement about retiring the debt... do something to support your SP!!

Posted via CB10

[Superfly_FR]

[info]
Dear regulars and visitors,
As you may have noticed, our long lasting thread has been renamed.
This happened in order to adapt the title to the current situation and offer a wider scope to our discussions.

While we still encourage contributors to focus on BBRY related news, we understand that regulars may want to discuss peripheral news (i.e "markets" in general or BlackBerry to the largest extend) and add some friendly chat here and there.

So, please feel comfortable in our new caf�: sit back, relax, enjoy the place and remember it's aimed to be a friendly place where controversial arguments can be exposed and discussed in a peaceful manner. As in real life, “le taulier” (OP) will try to keep the place welcoming but derails will be handled by the stewards (mod team): general Community Rules and Guidelines still apply.

We sincerely hope all parties will be satisfied with this new approach,
Thanks for being part of the CrackBerry heart !

The mod team

[/info]

[Superfly_FR]

Can't wait for that segment reporting....
Posted via CB10

Hey James, glad to see you around !
Will certainly take some time before we can actually measure a growth.
Still, I believe it's pointing in the right direction (and TBH I thought it was the plan, two years back already).
I for one have at least two projects that are related to these "new" offerings and I can't wait to see my headache (costs/bundles/margins) solved or at least minimized !

[smart548]

[info]
Dear regulars and visitors,
As you may have noticed, our long lasting thread has been renamed.
This happened in order to adapt the title to the current situation and offer a wider scope to our discussions.

While we still encourage contributors to focus on BBRY related news, we understand that regulars may want to discuss peripheral news (i.e "markets" in general or BlackBerry to the largest extend) and add some friendly chat here and there.

So, please feel comfortable in our new caf�: sit back, relax, enjoy the place and remember it's aimed to be a friendly place where controversial arguments can be exposed and discussed in a peaceful manner. As in real life, �le taulier� (OP) will try to keep the place welcoming but derails will be handled by the stewards (mod team): general Community Rules and Guidelines still apply.

We sincerely hope all parties will be satisfied with this new approach,
Thanks for being part of the CrackBerry heart !

The mod team

[/info]

Even if I am not a regular contributor there, I actually enjoy reading and learning from you guys! And, for what it means, I'm liking this new title for that thread: classy ;-)

Posted via CB10

[bbjdog]

Classic love

http://blogs.blackberry.com/2016/05/...r-pro-and-ceo/

Posted via my BlackBerry Passport

[Corbu]

AtHoc:
Blog - AtHoc - Networked Crisis Communication

[plasmid_boy]

[info]
Dear regulars and visitors,
As you may have noticed, our long lasting thread has been renamed.
This happened in order to adapt the title to the current situation and offer a wider scope to our discussions.

While we still encourage contributors to focus on BBRY related news, we understand that regulars may want to discuss peripheral news (i.e "markets" in general or BlackBerry to the largest extend) and add some friendly chat here and there.

So, please feel comfortable in our new caf�: sit back, relax, enjoy the place and remember it's aimed to be a friendly place where controversial arguments can be exposed and discussed in a peaceful manner. As in real life, “le taulier” (OP) will try to keep the place welcoming but derails will be handled by the stewards (mod team): general Community Rules and Guidelines still apply.

We sincerely hope all parties will be satisfied with this new approach,
Thanks for being part of the CrackBerry heart !

The mod team

[/info]

Thanks, SF!
Looking forward to it returning to an informative and enjoyable place. Let's "Make it Great Again!" [and make CB pay for it...LOL]

[farmwersteve]

SF

Cool beans on the thread re-naming.

It's a very progressive move and I for one Support BlackBerry, and I buy (too many) Shares, but I really do like learning about other markets, learn about charting and like to hear what other like minded investors are up to

Great work and thanks for all your hard work keeping this thread informative and entertaining.



Posted via CB10

[misc9700]

Hey SF,

I love the new title / classification. While I frequent the thread to learn about BBRY, I love reading about the stock interests and analysis of other members. The thread has grown somewhat boring in the last month or two. Let's hope it can return to its former glory.

Posted via CB10

[kadakn01]

update on invested amount of BBRY in Nanthealth,
from S-1
On March 31, 2014, the Registrant issued and sold to Blackberry Corporation an aggregate of 3,572,066 Series D units pursuant to a purchase agreement at a price of $2.7995 per unit for an aggregate purchase price of $10.0 million. The two companies are collaborating on the development of HIPAA-certified integrated clinical systems that transform the delivery of medical care.

[Superfly_FR]

Just a side note : please understand I'm only the messenger here and those you should congratulate are the mod and community teams and leaders as a whole. That's the way it has been thought, dealt and finally applied. It took a while before a consensus was found but here we are now, for the best and prosperous future !
SF

[Corbu]

Apologies if this has already been posted:
CRN Exclusive: BlackBerry Revamps Enterprise Partner Program As Channels Look To Secure Mobile Business Solutions - Page: 1 | CRN

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Now.. to convince the markets, and others, as Short Sellers have been having a very profitable field day pounding your stock into the ground... you are trading at Book Value!!!

... Why do you continue to pour money into losing propositions like hardware? If Software IS the future, then just focus exclusively there!!

No one is buying your "profitability on Hardware Division" story.... and if you truly believe it will work then massively buy back your shares!... make a statement about retiring the debt... do something to support your SP!!

Posted via CB10

Still too much of their "business" to just admit defeat.... strategic withdrawal, allowing Chen to minimize those hardware revenue losses.

And while software probable IS their future.... not even that is a guarantee. Look at the EMM market in general there are twelve major players and a dozen others. Who will be able to remain profitable and who will fall or be absorbed by others. I think BlackBerry has a very good chance, but I don't believe it will be as easy as some here want to believe it will be. And the market knows this. Key will probably be in future acquisitions to strengthen BlackBerry's software offerings. And that will be a better investment than buying back stock.

The love fest of all things good and positive that this thread seemed to demand, based on the "i support..." premise of this thread - didn't always paint the real picture of what is going on. Now that it's a "cafe", I guess that means the door is a little more open to real conversations.....

[randall2580]

Then to the mods and the folks behind making the change, well done folks!

Out of the box thinking there. The right thing to do in the end.

I hope it will encourage the continuation of the traditional banter we've come to love in this "little cafe". I know I really enjoy it and in fact look forward to reading it many times daily.

Now, how do I get an espresso around here?!

[morganplus8]

Thought I would post a chart of BBRY to show everyone the obvious, the stock is locked in a downtrend and its sector looks terrible:



For its part, the DOW Jones had drifted back to its 50-dma, almost touched it and reversed with a strong rally. The general market is setting up for a very nice rally, with the DJ up 166 pts today and looking to go to new all-time highs on this run. So what happened to BBRY? It has dropped back to its over-sold level of RSI=30 (29.62) and seems to be trying to take a stand here. Meanwhile, AAPL is looking horrible, it made a 52 week low recently and almost did it again today while the broader markets rally. The same can be said for MOBL, it has dropped hard, is at its RSI=17 which is grossly oversold and still it can't turn positive. If Morgan Stanley wants to support this one much longer, they will end up owning it as no one else wants to buy MOBL above $ 3.00/shr, even for a short term pop.

I think against this weak sector, BBRY is still trying to challenge its own downtrend line which crosses just above $ 6.60/shr for a reversal. As much as AAPL looks like it is dead, we need it to find a bottom and support its sector too. We have spent enough time at RSI=30 to have built a base so it makes sense they we could climb higher without the sector following us. We squandered a perfect 50-dma cutting above the 200-dma when BlackBerry decided to spend large sums of money building up its hardware offering, maybe the entire media sector thinks BlackBerry is getting out of hardware but John Chen's actions tell us otherwise. At some point, perhaps as we approach the next Q, the market will read something positive into his actions and rally the stock on better/probable PRIV uptake numbers. So mark the next Q on your calendar and watch the stock firm up as we head into that date and those numbers.

FYI : I should mention that a reversal or breakout of the stock occurs at $ 6.64/shr.