[Bacon Munchers]

Hey guys,

I was catching up on all things BlackBerry, cuz this is THE place, and wanted to mention that (for any lowly bb10 surfs like myself) that BBM has an update that now allows contacts to be sent to email.

Updated BBM on the wife's Classic. At least I did something right for her this week.

Man! Image BBM clawing it's way to popularity once again!?

Anyway, carry on...


PS - I'm holding into ER,because that is just the rebel that I am.

[Corbu]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/video...r-vision-video

BlackBerry CEO on Making Others Believe Your Vision

Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas

December 19th, 2017, 11:24 AM EST
BlackBerry CEO John Chen discusses how you have to make others believe in your vision and you must learn from your mistakes. (Source: Bloomberg)

[DaSchwantz]

Bitcoin is gambling, not investing. LOL......

Check out Bitcoin futures.... At least that way there is some regulations...

The closest I've got is considering buying OSTK several years ago...I held off BECAUSE they were getting into this bit coin nonsense, lol.

[kellyweng88]

Bitcoin is gambling, not investing. LOL......

Check out Bitcoin futures.... At least that way there is some regulations...

Crypto is really like gambling haha. You just have no idea where it will go. At the same time, you could make yourself decent returns in the short term.

I'm personally up about 150% so far. For short term plays, it's worth the gamble.

[DREXcb]

Lots of volume on BB today especially at the end.

Posted via CB10

[DREXcb]

This is the quietest I have ever seen this group the day before results. I think people just don't want to jinx the results.
It is going to be good,not stellar, with good short term guidance. Chen is now starting to focus on share price.
Anybody else want to weigh in?

Posted via CB10

[fanBBRY]

I am just wondering what is the billions of dollars in cash bringing in to the company, since we have not used it for anything significant in the last 7 months.

[W Hoa]

BlackBerry Reports Record Software and Services Revenue for the Second Consecutive Quarter in Q3 Fiscal 2018
- Record total company gross margin of 77 percent (non-GAAP) and 74 percent (GAAP) for the second consecutive quarter

BlackBerry Reports Record Software and Services Revenue for the Second Consecutive Quarter in Q3 Fiscal 2018

Q3 ResultsNon-GAAP revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 was $235 million with GAAP revenue of $226 million. Approximately 75% of third quarter software and services revenue (excluding IP licensing and professional services) was recurring. BlackBerry had approximately 3,000 enterprise customer orders in the quarter.
Non-GAAP operating income was $16 million, and non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.03 (basic and diluted). GAAP operating loss was $258 million. GAAP net loss for the quarter was $275 million, or $0.52 per share (basic and diluted). GAAP net income includes $23 million in amortization of acquired intangibles, $20 million in restructuring charges, a charge of $77 million of fair value adjustment related to the debentures, and other amounts as summarized in a table below.
Total cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments were approximately $2.5 billion as of November 30, 2017. This reflects usage of free cash of $9 million, which includes cash used in operations of $4 million and capital expenditures of $5 million. Excluding $605 million in the face value of the company's debt, the net cash balance at the end of the quarter was approximately $1.9 billion. The cash impact of the Nokia arbitration decision will be reflected in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018. There were no purchase orders with contract manufacturers at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2018, down from $35 million a year ago.
"Our momentum continues, with the delivery of a strong third quarter; I am very pleased with our results. Our progress, in both our financial and strategic objectives, is notable," said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO, BlackBerry. "We achieved records in software and services revenue and total company gross margin; breaking the records we set last quarter. We expanded our position in key verticals and geographies, with many new partners and highly competitive customer wins."
"Our strategy is working and our execution is yielding results," said Chen. "We are a market leader in secure endpoint management and embedded software. The validation we have received, from partners, customers and industry experts around the world, speaks for itself."
"BlackBerry's market opportunity is significant and, based on our progress so far in FY18, I am pleased with our near-term outlook and longer-term potential."

[ibpluto]

PM looking good

[dusdal]

Obviously the space to attack for bears is the non-GAAP adjustments.

The counter is that vast majority of this is the one-time Nokia settlement and related legal costs, as well as debenture adjustments.

A great beat all around.

[Corbu]

Q3 Highlights

• Total company revenue of $235 million (non-GAAP) and $226 million (GAAP)
• Record software and services revenue of $199 million (non-GAAP) and $190 million (GAAP), breaking the record set last quarter
• Record gross margin of 77% (non-GAAP) and 74% (GAAP), breaking the record set last quarter
• Operating income of $16 million (non-GAAP) and operating loss of $258 million (GAAP); positive non-GAAP operating income for the seventh consecutive quarter
• EPS of $0.03 (non-GAAP) and loss of ($0.52) (GAAP)
• Adjusted EBITDA of $35 million; positive for the fifteenth consecutive quarter
• Total cash balance of $2.5 billion at the end of the fiscal third quarter
• Highly competitive customer wins, in regulated industries, including NATO, the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Defense, the Dutch Government, Deutsche Bank and more
• New cybersecurity practice launched to enable GDPR compliance in Europe
• The only vendor, with a single platform offering, recognized by Gartner in all eight categories of their Market Guide for Information-Centric Endpoint and Mobile Protection
• Ranked an EMM leader by Forrester, for the third consecutive year
• BlackBerry QNX design wins with ten automotive suppliers in the quarter. We now partner with the top three automotive tier ones; Bosch, Denso and Magna
• Strategic expansion of Qualcomm relationship, in connected and autonomous vehicle platforms
• Patent licensing agreement signed with Teletry, enabling a market opportunity of the majority of smartphone manufacturers worldwide
• After the quarter closed we announced in partnership with Denso, that we have started development of the world's first integrated Human Machine Interface Platform (HMI). Intel is collaborating in the development of this product

[...]

Outlook

We are maintaining our guidance for the full year fiscal 2018:

• Total non-GAAP revenue guidance is maintained, in the range of $920 million to $950 million. Given the strength of our first three quarters and our outlook for the full year fiscal 2018, we expect to come in the mid to higher end of that range
• Total non-GAAP software and services revenue growth in the range of 10 percent to 15 percent
• Positive non-GAAP EPS for the full year
• Positive free cash flow for the full year, before taking into account the net impact of arbitration awards and damages, as well as costs related to restructuring and transition from the hardware business

[Corbu]

Nice list of customer wins for UEM...

[Corbu]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blackbe...vot-1513776495
BlackBerry Earnings Reflect March Toward Software Pivot
Revenue declines, but margins boosted as it builds enterprise-software business

[dusdal]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blackbe...vot-1513776495
BlackBerry Earnings Reflect March Toward Software Pivot
Revenue declines, but margins boosted as it builds enterprise-software business

Paywall

[morganplus8]

Wow, you can't even detect where the weak stuff is here. A great report and it will drive 12 month targets higher for sure. It's as if we are growing everything all at once, no one sector is racing away here.

As for the price of the stock, the 52 week high is $ 11.77/shr and we have a very early high in the $ 12.00's back in the take-over rumour days of the early 2015 time frame. Can you imagine where we could be in 6 months with this kind of growth? Chen is going to have a fun day today, he deserves it too.

If we approach $ 12.00/shr soon, I'll consider writing some calls against some of my position in the $ 12.00 to $ 12.50 strike area for about 6 - 8 weeks out. My goal in buying BB was to ride it to great profits and then to setup a covered writing program by selling slightly out of the money calls on pops in the stock. Today we have one of those pops but we also have Chen in rare form, selling the business to the world in a powerful way. I'll have to watch the tape and see if I'm giving up some profit down the road. What a great day.

Chen is rocking it today, it is his day.

All of this makes you want to see MOBL earnings, their stock is so artificially high right now, the equivalent of BB at $ 20.00/shr. The ball is now in their court for stable revenues and sustainability. The questions to Chen are so much more in depth now, all about growth, growing the business, potential areas of new business and more.

Listen to Chen talk, he is pumped. GL

[Chuck Finley69]

Wow, you can't even detect where the weak stuff is here. A great report and it will drive 12 month targets higher for sure. It's as if we are growing everything all at once, no one sector is racing away here.

As for the price of the stock, the 52 week high is $ 11.77/shr and we have a very early high in the $ 12.00's back in the take-over rumour days of the early 2015 time frame. Can you imagine where we could be in 6 months with this kind of growth? Chen is going to have a fun day today, he deserves it too.

If we approach $ 12.00/shr soon, I'll consider writing some calls against some of my position in the $ 12.00 to $ 12.50 strike area for about 6 - 8 weeks out. My goal in buying BB was to ride it to great profits and then to setup a covered writing program by selling slightly out of the money calls on pops in the stock. Today we have one of those pops but we also have Chen in rare form, selling the business to the world in a powerful way. I'll have to watch the tape and see if my giving up some profit down the road. What a great day.

Chen is rocking it today, it is his day.

All of this makes you want to see MOBL earnings, their stock is so artificially high right now, the equivalent of BB at $ 20.00/shr. The ball is now in their court for stable revenues and sustainability. The questions to Chen are so much more in depth now, all about growth, growing the business, potential areas of new business and more.

Listen to Chen talk, he is pumped. GL

Little egg nog didn't hurt. Liquid courage....

[W Hoa]

Paywall

WSJ

Revenue declines, but margins boosted as it builds enterprise-software business

Dec. 20, 2017 8:28 a.m. ET
1 COMMENTS
BlackBerry Ltd. saw its revenue continue to decline, but boosted margins as it continued to build its enterprise-software business.

Shares have risen 57% this year as investors responded to the company’s software initiatives and rose an additional 7.9% in premarket trading.

The company is betting its future on making software for next-generation driverless cars after having abandoned production of its once-ubiquitous smartphones.

The company brought in $9 million from hand-held devices, or 4% of total revenue, down 85% from a year earlier.

The company wants to double its engineering staff in the unit devoted to the car technology and is spending $76 million to create a center for self-driving car technology near Ottawa.

Software management for phones currently provides much of BlackBerry’s revenue.

On Wednesday the company said it had achieved record software and services revenue and a record gross margin, as the transformation from a phone maker into a software seller continues.

Revenue in the company’s enterprise software and services unit rose 11% to $97 million. The company’s gross margin rose to 74.3% from 66.8%.

In all, revenue for the quarter fell 22% to $226 million as the company posted a loss of $275 million, or 52 cents a share. In the same quarter last year, the company posted a loss of $117 million, or 22 cents a share. Excluding items such as a legal settlement, BlackBerry posted a profit of 3 cents a share.

Analyst polled by Thomson Reuters had expected $214.6 million in revenue and break-even adjusted earnings per share.

[bigbbrybeliever]

I am expecting the share price passes $12 today or even in the first 30 minutes after the market open.

[dusdal]

WSJ

Revenue declines, but margins boosted as it builds enterprise-software business
...

Analyst polled by Thomson Reuters had expected $214.6 million in revenue and break-even adjusted earnings per share.

Thanks

[bapebape]

congratulations guys !! gonna be a great day

[Corbu]

Sorry about that, dusdal.

For those who could not access yesterday's WSJ piece, FTR:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/forget-...ars-1513692000
Forget Phones. BlackBerry Is Pushing Software for Driverless Cars

KANATA, ONT. -- BlackBerry Ltd. is betting its future on a business that makes software for next-generation driverless cars.

Having abandoned production of its once-ubiquitous smartphones, the Canadian company recently refocused its mission around QNX, a core unit whose technology provides a foundational layer for car entertainment and information systems. BlackBerry aims to double its QNX engineering staff to about 1,000 in the coming years and spend $76 million to create a center for self-driving car technology in Ottawa.

BlackBerry is entering a highly competitive field, with some of the world's biggest tech companies investing in autonomous-vehicle research. Still, the company's QNX push has yielded some early results, including tie-ups with Ford Motor Co. and Aptiv PLC, the General Motors Co. spin-off formerly known as Delphi Automotive PLC. A possible deal with Tata Motors Ltd.'s Jaguar Land Rover unit is in the works.

In September, the company launched a marketing campaign with billboards in Silicon Valley and Detroit showing a car with the tagline "Is Your Car BlackBerry Secure?" hoping to persuade people its technology can protect autonomous vehicles from hacking.

Over the long term, "the auto sector is our best chance at revenue growth," BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen said in an interview. Mr. Chen will deliver a keynote address next month at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

BlackBerry's push into the auto market likely will be highlighted when the company reports its third-quarter fiscal 2018 earnings on Wednesday.

The company has struggled to find its foothold in recent years after being hobbled by competition from phones made by Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. BlackBerry once counted 80 million phone subscribers using its email service, according to the company. Its customer base evaporated after employers began allowing workers to use personal devices, and its market capitalization plunged from a peak of C$79.5 billion in 2008 to C$3.24 billion in late 2013.

The number of handsets BlackBerry sells via third-party manufacturers -- the company stopped making its phones last year -- is now so small that research firm Gartner Inc. measured its share of the global device market at 0.0%. Its other main business, software management for phones, currently makes up the bulk of its revenue but analysts say it is appearing to plateau.

A successful turnaround pinned to QNX could make BlackBerry attractive to a potential buyer, said Todd Coupland, a technology analyst with CIBC World Markets. But "it will first need to announce more self-driving wins to legitimize its position in the market," he added.

One potential sign that the software initiatives might be working: The company's share price is up 52% this year.

If the stock continues to rise, BlackBerry's two biggest shareholders, Pasadena, Calif.-based Primecap Management Corp. and Toronto-based Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., could support a potential sale, which would allow them to recoup an investment that has long performed poorly, people familiar with the matter said. The two shareholders collectively own about one-quarter of the company's shares.

In recent years, interested suitors such as Samsung and Oracle Corp. have been drawn to BlackBerry's large library of mobile, encryption and QNX patents, the people said. However, Mr. Chen has rebuffed several quiet takeover overtures as inadequate and BlackBerry's major shareholders have backed him, they added. A spokeswoman from Oracle declined to comment, and Samsung didn't return phone calls or emails seeking comment.

For instance, Fairfax Financial's 12% stake, which includes stock and convertible debt, has an average of cost, excluding debt, of about $16 a share, according to one of the people. Takeover overtures in recent years have fallen well below the investor's cost, the person said, but the gap has narrowed as Mr. Chen's pivot into the auto market gains traction. BlackBerry shares are trading around $11.

There are nearly a dozen companies developing operating systems in the auto sector that compete with QNX, according to a recent report by CIBC World Markets. Apple, Alphabet Inc.'s Waymo division and Tesla Motors Inc. use their own operating systems for their driverless cars. Toyota Motors Corp. opted to use open-source technology for some of its future software plans.

BlackBerry's QNX software handles the complex code needed to analyze data that driverless cars absorb through sensors and help a car's computer prioritize what parts of a vehicle should be running in real-time. It also will allow a car to continue functioning even if one of those systems stops working, an ideal feature for self-driving cars, Blackberry said. In addition, the system shields a car's computer from malware, rogue software and distributed denial of service attacks, the company said.

BlackBerry bought QNX from Harman International Industries Inc.,, which was acquired earlier this year by Samsung, in 2010 to help bolster its handsets' operating system with its BB10 devices. The company sought to include enough features to draw interest away from iPhones and Android-supported phones. The new BlackBerry devices failed to catch on and the company shifted its engineering resources back to its QNX division as car makers started developing software.

Today, the QNX unit operates out of a modest three-story building in a suburb of Ottawa occupied by hundreds of engineers, with piles of car parts strewn about. A garage contains several high-end vehicles, such as a Lincoln MKZ and a Mercedes-AMG CLA45 coupe, equipped with the latest driverless technology for testing.

Some of BlackBerry's customers said that QNX provides them with a competitive edge because the software already adheres to safety standards for use in the automotive sector, a result of the company's investment in this area.

"For us, that was the decision-maker," said Aptiv's chief technology officer Glen De Vos in an interview. Aptiv has plans to launch its own autonomous driving solutions by 2019 and partnered with BlackBerry in September.

[Corbu]

BTW, loved how JC ended the call with a "Rumour has it I'll be making a big announcement at the Auto Show"...

[Corbu]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...ware-contracts
BlackBerry Beats Estimates on New Government Software Contracts

[Andy_bb_king]

Chirping Chirping Chirping!

[bbjdog]

Pop goes the beer.

Cheers mates!