[Corbu]

PR:
BlackBerry Establishes New Subsidiary to Better Serve the U.S. Government

"Notably, BlackBerry’s crisis communication solution protects more than 70% of all U.S. federal employees."

[La Emperor]

Visiongain states that "Automotive embedded software market set to grow to grow to $2.39bn by 2019".

https://www.benzinga.com/pressreleas...et-set-to-grow

The Visiongain report analyst commented "Blackberry QNX is expected to hold the largest market share of the Automotive Embedded Software market in 2019 followed by Genivi (Linux Based) and Microsoft. In addition, Genivi (Linux Based) is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period from 2019 to 2029. GENIVI based on Linux is a standard for vehicle-specialized functions among automotive companies and it is expected to be a preferred platform of many automotive companies henceforth."

[Corbu]

W Hoa, drobbie, La Emperor and 3 others like this.

[drobbie]

JC doing his thing. It is coming together

La Emperor, Corbu, rarsen and 2 others like this.

[W Hoa]

PR:

BlackBerry Establishes New Subsidiary to Better Serve the U.S. Government

"Notably, BlackBerry’s crisis communication solution protects more than 70% of all U.S. federal employees."

With Cylance remaining a distinct entity 'separate' from BlackBerry and now a new subsidiary in DC that "... BlackBerry Government Solutions will have its own offices, board of directors, IT infrastructure, security systems, and employee badges" I'm wondering, somewhat humorously, if Chen is conglomerate-izing BlackBerry. All that much easier to sell the separate bits later on I would guess.

[Disclaimer: This concern is speculative and intended for amusement value only and is not an attempt to besmirch John Chen]

[Bacon Munchers]

The purchase of Cylance has equal value today as the real estate did in 2013. It was a large asset, It wasn't insignificant or overlooked by Prem and company that's for sure. At the time of the sale they had 1.2 debt banked, along with cash on hand. Legacy revenue, although declining, was measured in billions of dollars at the time and continued into 2016. There was no need to sell it.
If the debt was needed to carry the real estate or any other portion of the business then all was justified. It would be considered "good debt" it's working for you. But that's not what they did. The debt sat untouched and the real estate disappeared at a discount. Makes me wonder if that's why their keeping cylance as a stand alone company, Another quick fire sale should prem decide he needs some Vegas money.

Does anyone want to discuss where the 300 million Chen redistributed from the 1.1 Qcom money went?

Posted via CB10

Wow! You appear to have come out of nowhere with all the answers that we here have pondered - some for years!
Your paintbrush is definitely wide, but I for one would really dig hearing all you have to know about that 300 million deal...
In past times of "don't tell", through to "fake news" and on to the present "me too", it seems fitting that the world know the truth - starting with the Qcom scandal!

What say you, sir?

[Corbu]

BlackBerry launches new US subsidiary in push to earn more federal contracts

BlackBerry on Tuesday officially opened a new D.C.-based branch aimed at helping the tech company secure more contracts with the federal government.

The new subsidiary, known as BlackBerry Government Solutions, is largely focused on the firm’s projects that fall under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), the government-wide program on cloud security that companies must comply with in order to earn federal contracts.

Speaking with reporters at the event, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said that BlackBerry -- which is based in Canada -- finds itself not being included in federal work, even if its technology and products will some times be used by federal contractors.

"We want to make sure that BlackBerry is in the program, and this is why we're investing," Chen said.

BlackBerry is based in Canada, and concerns about the risks of hosting data in foreign countries, where it could potentially be accessed by third-parties or become a national security risk, has been an issue for federal governments.

For example, the U.S. has cracked down on Chinese tech giants like Huawei, saying the firm's close ties to the Chinese government pose a national security risk.

Bob Day, the president of the new subsidiary and a retired rear admiral in the U.S. Coast Guard, said that he views the launch of the D.C.-based branch as a model that could be replicated in other countries.

He said that other nations, like Canada and Australia, are creating their own security requirements like the U.S.'s FedRAMP, and that he can see BlackBerry setting up similar foreign offices down the road in to ensure that BlackBerry products are compliant with the various government regulations.

"More and more we're seeing agencies make that determination...that people are saying, 'I want the data in this country' and 'I want only the people who are accessing that data to be in this country,'" Day said.

BlackBerry says that it’s currently being used to cover security and data privacy in nearly all federal agencies.

Chen also said that the company serves as the mobile standard for the majority of the so-called Five Eyes countries, the nations including the U.S. that share intelligence with each other.

[smithm565]

Could read this as good or bad, depending on whether people are leaving Cylance or the company is ramping up their workforce?

Cylance Job postings: 67
https://cylance.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/ExternalSite/jobs

BlackBerry Job postings: 112
https://bb.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/BlackBerry/jobs

**an interesting note/ speculation: 2 BlackBerry postings.
Sr. Professional Services Consultant - Florence, Ky
Sr. Professional Services Consultant - Arlington, Va
-reading the job description of this posting, and knowing that AMZN has a very large and growing presence in Hebron, Ky (on the edge of Florence, ky), including AWS. Also, announcement of DC HQ2.

**both require: "United States Government Security Clearance at the Secret level or greater."

http://www.thinkkentucky.com/kyedc/p...top25firms.pdf

Wonder if this has anything to do with AMZN's bid for the Pentagon 's JEDI cloud contract?

Posted via CB10

Might be worth re-posting this info, now that they have created a DC office/subsidiary, and the number of BB job postings for the DC area has increased. Would be nice if this was another step toward a piece of the JEDI cloud contract with the winner (likely AMZN). Chen did say:

"The new subsidiary, known as BlackBerry Government Solutions, is largely focused on the firm’s projects that fall under the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), the government-wide program on cloud security"

Posted via CB10

[masterful]

thanks for the insight Smithm565!

[smithm565]

Just some follow-up reading material on AWS & FedRAMP:

https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/fedramp/

Posted via CB10

[morganplus8]

Looks like some of us are willing to talk about the past here. Okay, I'll bite.

Prem offered $9.00/shr to take the company private, he had plenty to lose in all of this so there's little surprise in doing that. He owned 43M shares at the time of the offer but few remember that he also bought just over 9M more at $ 8.00/shr after making the offer. When bids failed to materialize in the range of his adjusted cost basis for the initial investment, he decided the best result for him was to let the company remain public. Hence the bond deal to shore up the price of the stock that looked to be clearing the $ 5.00/shr/US mark on the downside. Nothing wrong with any of this to my way of thinking as I sure didn't want to accept $ 9.00/shr/US for my holdings at the time.

With plenty of cash, and John Chen at the helm, the stock began to rally. When the stock reached the exercise price of the new bond issue, Prem sold off those 9M support shares for a very nice profit in the mid $ 10.00 area. By now, he held 93M shares in convertibles and actual stock so his cost basis is lower than many report today. My point is, don't lose any sleep worrying about Prem!

Now it was Chen's turn to work a miracle, he wrote off $4.5B in assets, recaptured billions in past taxes paid and streamlined the operation while working down hardware inventory to zero and passing it onto others. Those 10-year contracts signed by others are 1/2 way through their timeline now so in 5-years BlackBerry has to decide if they wish to re-enter the hardware market again.

Chen has done a remarkable job of turning the company around now. Only 1 in 5 companies are able to re-invent themselves and make a comeback and far fewer under the same brand name. We traded off billions of dollars in low margin revenues for $ 1B in high margin stuff. There is no chance of the company going under now and the bond issue has been cut in half today, versus when Chen started. Prem has been a source of complete support for BB so what more can we ask of them? The stock is bullish as hell, it wants to lean against its Bollinger Bands every single day with the RSI>70 as well. If you traded the stock whenever the RSI=70 or more and bought it back you look like a pro trader. Today we have an investment that will see new highs and never look back. Arguing that they could have got more for their real estate suggests that you know something about commercial real estate in Kitchener/Waterloo. Yeah right there.

To conclude, I think we couldn't ask more of Chen, he endured a ton of negative press for years, which he nor his family needed to experience. He has created a viable company within a very competitive environment and they appear to lead others in so many sectors now. Turning around failing companies takes time, he should be forgiven for taking the time to get it right.

Enough of that, let's focus on making money with this new company.

[bapebape]

looking forward to making money with BlackBerry!
Morgan if you have some time would love to hear your comments on eypt upcoming earnings as well . thank you =)

[Corbu]

BlackBerry morphs into billion-dollar AI cyber company

Former smartphone maker BlackBerry just became a billion-dollar cyber company with the acquisition of artificial intelligence and machine learning company Cylance. John Chen, the CEO, said security was at the heart of the transformation.

“Everybody remembered BlackBerry as the handset company. But what is the essence of that handset? Security,” Chen said to FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Wednesday. “This is why President Obama uses it, you know. This is why a lot of politicians, bankers, all [use] it — because of security.”

But BlackBerry, which is based in Canada, hasn’t exactly ditched the old brand just yet, Chen said, rather it has expanded on what it does well. It also just established a Government Solutions unit.

“I didn’t really [create] a new company out of the old company,” he said. “What I have done was to take what we do well minus the hardware component, license it to other people to build their phone, but use a lot of security encryption technology that is in your phone to make it secure.”

Irving, California-based Cylance was also just awarded a contract by NATO to use its encrypted voice technology.

When Varney asked whether Chen can offer a guarantee that its technology cannot be hacked, he replied, “This world — cat and mouse — it’s just hard to crack it.”

He added: “I think it would be naïve of me to say that it will never be hacked. We try to stay ahead of the game. This is like locks on doors. You can put all kinds of locks and gadgets on it, you can’t say [it will] never be broken though.”

[Corbu]

JC on Fox Business:
https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6013...#sp=show-clips

Mar. 13, 2019 - 3:05 - BlackBerry CEO John Chen on the company's encryption and security technology and NATO's deal with for the company's encrypted voice technology.

[morganplus8]

looking forward to making money with BlackBerry!
Morgan if you have some time would love to hear your comments on eypt upcoming earnings as well . thank you =)

Sure, very quickly, EYPT has the first of two products going to market, the second one will be the driver for the stock. Earnings mean nothing as their startup or launch costs are built into those numbers. So the real driver in the short term is what Nancy will say about the future. I believe we are at the starting point of a major rally here. Let's meet back here later tomorrow morning! GL

[bapebape]

Sure, very quickly, EYPT has the first of two products going to market, the second one will be the driver for the stock. Earnings mean nothing as their startup or launch costs are built into those numbers. So the real driver in the short term is what Nancy will say about the future. I believe we are at the starting point of a major rally here. Let's meet back here later tomorrow morning! GL

thanks morgan , fingers crossed , all ready to ROCK and ROLL .
see you tomorrow

[chrysaurora]

Google Fi is basically an MVNO that runs on Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular etc. It automatically switches to the network that has best signal in the area. If you look at Google Fi's phone selection - it is Google's brand devices and a couple of Motorola and LG devices.

While, technically, you can use any phone but if you use an unsupported phone, the phone just remains on TMobile and you don't get to take advantage of key feature (auto network switching).

So, the device selection there is so few that if BlackBerry got their devices certified by Google Fi then it should result in uptick of sales. There are not hundreds of devices to compete with there.

Here are the devices: https://fi.google.com/about/phones/

[bbjdog]

Morgan mate, THANK YOU!

[Corbu]

BlackBerry creates Washington subsidiary to serve U.S. government

Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry Ltd. announced on Tuesday it’s creating a new subsidiary based in Washington, D.C. called BlackBerry Government Solutions.

The new entity is independent, but wholly owned by BlackBerry, and will serve the purpose of catering to U.S. federal agencies and focusing on the firm’s Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). It will have a separate corporate governance structure from the Canadian headquarters. A measure that BlackBerry says is necessary to comply with U.S. government security requirements.

According to a press release, the new division will be led by Rear Admiral Robert E. Day Jr., a retired member of the U.S. Coast Guard who joined BlackBerry in 2016. As president of the new firm, he’ll be responsible for navigating certifications required to operate in government and oversee FedRAMP cloud services.

“A tidal wave of connected devices is in sight and I believe BlackBerry is uniquely positioned to help the U.S. government securely build and connect all ‘things’ from ATVs and drones to documents, emails, and the data that flows between,” says BlackBerry CEO John Chen in a press release. “”This new subsidiary allows us to deepen our reach within the U.S. government sector by ensuring our next-generation cyber security solutions and Spark platform meet FedRAMP and ATO certifications, as well as provide our customers with a higher-level of service.”

Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. David MacNaughton joined BlackBerry executives in Washington for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open the new office.

Also on Tuesday, BlackBerry Ltd. announced it won a contract with the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI). NCI assists NATO members in communicating securely and it will be using BlackBerry’s SecuSuite for Government to that end. The product can be installed on mobile devices, as well as on-premises data centres or in the cloud. It enables encrypted communications and provides high-grade security around VoIP.

BlackBerry isn’t the only company foreign to the U.S. to create a separate governance structure in the country. France-based cloud services provider OVH entered the U.S. market by creating a subsidiary as well, operating two datacentres in the country.

OVH explains its motivations for doing so as two-fold. Like BlackBerry, it wants to maintain compliance with U.S. standards and have at least the opportunity to provide the government with services there. It also points to U.S. laws like the Patriot Act, saying that a clear and permanent separation for OVH operations in other countries is necessary to ensure customer’s data is safe from access from the U.S. government.

In an interview with IT World Canada at OVH Summit last fall, OVH CEO Michel Paulin explained that the U.S. will sometimes argue its laws supersede the local laws of other jurisdictions, as a way to make companies turn over data that is stored outside of its borders.

[_dimi_]

One important detail:

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/video/ex...n-chen~1402780

JC is known as a turnaround specialist: Pyramid Technology was only days or weeks away from bankruptcy, and Sybase he sold for tenfold. Not sure why you'd judge JC weeks or months before the Cylance acquisition starts paying off? Before, when they had a few billion dollars just sitting there on their books, I wasn't happy either. But it sure feels like the Sybase turnaround, when JC made a critical and expensive acquisition that ultimately led to big rewards for its shareholders.

[abwan11]

One important detail:

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/video/ex...n-chen~1402780

JC is known as a turnaround specialist: Pyramid Technology was only days or weeks away from bankruptcy, and Sybase he sold for tenfold. Not sure why you'd judge JC weeks or months before the Cylance acquisition starts paying off? Before, when they had a few billion dollars just sitting there on their books, I wasn't happy either. But it sure feels like the Sybase turnaround, when JC made a critical and expensive acquisition that ultimately led to big rewards for its shareholders.

it's what he's done up to this that is bothersome, I believe he is focused on growing it NOW, but it could of happened sooner without all the gaming. They floated the business and it's shareholders to take care of themselves first. As if it were privately held.

Posted via CB10

[bbjdog]

Morgan mate this one is for you and not MRS MORGAN.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sophi...200500136.html

[bbjdog]

MORGAN mate , I dont know if the MODS will approve my post. but congratulate on SPHS latest quarterly report!!!

[Corbu]

JC:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update...86422796640256
The Importance of 5G

[morganplus8]

MORGAN mate , I dont know if the MODS will approve my post. but congratulate on SPHS latest quarterly report!!!

Hey buddy, Can you turn that back into a link? I was shocked to see it this morning! I had read it already and was onto EYPT when I saw it. Who knows, the mods might pull it now. Thanks for thinking of me. SPHS is a large position for us here, mostly my wife though! I'm anxious to hear next steps for this company in terms of financing. GL