[Digital_Islandboy]

People are still rolling out niche apps on blackberry store. The blackberry store needs a few things. Divide it between Version 10 and 7. Create icons people can put on their site that says “this app is optimised for BB10!” 1) have a vote section to nominate something as featured app for the day!!! And an icon which says “this app was voted a featured app before” 2) better ranking system for apps you’ve downloaded and what you think of them. 3) Better feedback listing on apps with good way to write to developer directly. 4) hate to say it but, put an ads network on the App Store and list how many downloads things have had to date. Including totals overall from whole Bb AppStore since ?2007? It will give news companies something to report like if there were x amount of app downloads this year.

Content deals. Should be able to download new songs/ringtones from Barnes and Noble, or other platforms and have it bill to ones’ either wireless carrier or to a credit card folks could put on file with RIMM.

I think I could get Blackberry a better deal on their credit card processing for the App Store... — note I am a shareholder.a

[Chuck Finley69]

People are still rolling out niche apps on blackberry store. The blackberry store needs a few things. Divide it between Version 10 and 7. Create icons people can put on their site that says “this app is optimised for BB10!” 1) have a vote section to nominate something as featured app for the day!!! And an icon which says “this app was voted a featured app before” 2) better ranking system for apps you’ve downloaded and what you think of them. 3) Better feedback listing on apps with good way to write to developer directly. 4) hate to say it but, put an ads network on the App Store and list how many downloads things have had to date. Including totals overall from whole Bb AppStore since ?2007? It will give news companies something to report like if there were x amount of app downloads this year.

Content deals. Should be able to download new songs/ringtones from Barnes and Noble, or other platforms and have it bill to ones’ either wireless carrier or to a credit card folks could put on file with RIMM.

I think I could get Blackberry a better deal on their credit card processing for the App Store... — note I am a shareholder.a

There are separate app stores already for BBOS and BB10 since completely different.

All your suggestions used to be done. Over the last several years BlackBerry has been winding down all existing mobile operations besides exiting BB hardware in 2016 and going the BBAndroid licensing route.

[_dimi_]

This time, Sophos got acquired.... seems like cybersecurity is a promising industry to be in.

[_dimi_]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-s...-idUSKBN1WT0LQ

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

People are still rolling out niche apps on blackberry store. The blackberry store needs a few things. Divide it between Version 10 and 7. Create icons people can put on their site that says “this app is optimised for BB10!” 1) have a vote section to nominate something as featured app for the day!!! And an icon which says “this app was voted a featured app before” 2) better ranking system for apps you’ve downloaded and what you think of them. 3) Better feedback listing on apps with good way to write to developer directly. 4) hate to say it but, put an ads network on the App Store and list how many downloads things have had to date. Including totals overall from whole Bb AppStore since ?2007? It will give news companies something to report like if there were x amount of app downloads this year.

Content deals. Should be able to download new songs/ringtones from Barnes and Noble, or other platforms and have it bill to ones’ either wireless carrier or to a credit card folks could put on file with RIMM.

I think I could get Blackberry a better deal on their credit card processing for the App Store... — note I am a shareholder.a

Where have you been? That BlackBerry went away a long time ago.

[Chuck Finley69]

Where have you been? That BlackBerry went away a long time ago.

Digital Gilligan's Island ;-D

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Digital Gilligan's Island ;-D

That or his post got Lost in Space for five years... and just now made it to CrackBerry.

[EchoTango]

People are still rolling out niche apps on blackberry store.

Not that I mind in the least, but a bit off topic for this forum.

Just saying......

[Bacon Munchers]

This is known as shareholder "Oppression"...

Isn't that also racist?



So, with BlackBerry not exactly being in financial standing to buy back stock, I really dig the idea that sir Chen decided to go in for a good chunk here. At that takes a bit of wind out of the sicko's to use those shares for manipulation (like they do mine).

I feel like there is a discussion being had behind the scene to help the good-guys put some sort of a floor under this thing(?). Whatever the case, we seem to have a footing here.

Anyway, when a CEO goes in, that is usually a pretty good sign.

[Digital_Islandboy]

Well, we already knew this... ;-)

https://www.cantechletter.com/2019/1...-cars-pi-says/
BlackBerry could become the Microsoft Windows of connected cars, PI says

Microsoft would destroy it within 2 years.

[Bacon Munchers]

I am looking at what I will add to my TFSA this year, and tripped across this article. Even though it is from TM Fool, it seems decently written:

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/tf...123630720.html

..."Fast forward 12 years and BlackBerry has a market capitalization of $3.8 billion compared to the $1.06 trillion market capitalization of Apple.
Despite these mistakes, however, I still believe that BlackBerry is a good investment given its focus on software and strong operating cash flow...."

Sorry, I don't have a Yahoo finance account to post a larger blurb. Perhaps someone can finish.
Instead of BlackBerry buying back shares, wouldn't it be smarter for them to offer a dividend? Would that not help smooth out some of these rapid changes in SP??

[Elephant_Canyon]

People are still rolling out niche apps on blackberry store. The blackberry store needs a few things. Divide it between Version 10 and 7. Create icons people can put on their site that says “this app is optimised for BB10!” 1) have a vote section to nominate something as featured app for the day!!! And an icon which says “this app was voted a featured app before” 2) better ranking system for apps you’ve downloaded and what you think of them. 3) Better feedback listing on apps with good way to write to developer directly. 4) hate to say it but, put an ads network on the App Store and list how many downloads things have had to date. Including totals overall from whole Bb AppStore since ?2007? It will give news companies something to report like if there were x amount of app downloads this year.

Content deals. Should be able to download new songs/ringtones from Barnes and Noble, or other platforms and have it bill to ones’ either wireless carrier or to a credit card folks could put on file with RIMM.

I think I could get Blackberry a better deal on their credit card processing for the App Store... — note I am a shareholder.a

Or, you know, shut down the app store entirely, which is what's going to happen sometime next year.

[JLagoon]

Hi all,

Here's a quick chart update. The news of JC buying stocks and a few institutions increasing their position did help to create some stabilization in the stock price, and a little upward movement. JC should buy more. RSI on the daily is at 35. BB is quite far from being overbought. Putting RSI aside, this price is just really low.

The hourly chart shows that BB gapped up, escaped the bigger parallel channel (quite a relieve to me), and has traded sideways more or less. There is a possible ascending triangle in the making. Volume trend supports this so far. If this holds true, then the resolve is $5.50 - $5.60 range. In the grand scheme of things, it is a narrow range. However, small things add up. This stock is capable to trade in bigger range.

Hourly:



Daily:

[Corbu]

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...300939395.html
BlackBerry Cylance Announces Integration with Chronicle's Backstory

https://chronicle.security/products/backstory/

Chronicle is a cybersecurity company and subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.^[1] The company began as a product by X, but became its own company in January 2018. Chronicle creates tools for businesses to prevent cybercrime on their platforms.^[2] Chronicle announced "Back Story" at RSA 2019 in March,^[3] adding log capture and analysis to the family of products that include VirusTotal, and UpperCase which provide threat intelligence (Known Malicious IPs and URLs). Backstory claims to "Extract signals from your security telemetry to find threats instantly," by combining log data with threat intelligence.

[Seadog83]

Isn't that also racist?
I feel like there is a discussion being had behind the scene to help the good-guys put some sort of a floor under this thing(?). Whatever the case, we seem to have a footing here.

Anyway, when a CEO goes in, that is usually a pretty good sign.

While I'm quite happy that both the CFO and CEO bought shares, from an academic position I'm curious how they can. I had a friend who worked for BB as a low level engineer, and they said they were restricted in their buying to a few windows per year, to insulate them from any allegations of insider trading. Here you have two people who are literally the best informed in the world in terms of insider or unpublished info, and they can just buy willy nilly? None the less a vote of confidence is a vote of confidence.

Sorry, I don't have a Yahoo finance account to post a larger blurb. Perhaps someone can finish.
Instead of BlackBerry buying back shares, wouldn't it be smarter for them to offer a dividend? Would that not help smooth out some of these rapid changes in SP??

I never understood why some people jones so hard for a dividend and it has me questioning if they know exactly what it is. It is not free money. It is at best a neutral transaction, generating no value.

Take BB, at $5.25 they have about .75 in cash, and 4.50 in enterprise value. That cash sits in their bank accounts. If they pay a special dividend of 0.75, the stock price will immediately plummet to 4.50, as now it represents 4.50 in enterprice value and nothing else. That 0.75 however instead of sitting in their account, now sits in yours, for a combined total of.... drumroll... 5.25!

I honestly do not see how putting another drag on cash would stabilize the price. If a company like BB, which has been more or less break even and cash flow neutral for years starts paying a dividend, eventually they simply run out of cash.

Further, if a growth company (like BB) starts giving all its cash back to investors, they can then come up short to fund actual growth(R&D, cashflow deficits for new businesses), which is the whole reason you invest in these sorts of companies in the first place.

The *only* time a dividend is appropriate, is when a company has excess and increasing amounts of cash, and truly has no good use for it. Think extremely stable companies in saturated industries with low or no growth such as banks or utilities. You simply aren't going to see 50% YoY growth at the power company, yet they still generate cash. There is really no good use for it inside the company, so they give it back to investors.

I would almost be worried if they started paying a dividend, because it almost signals "We have no good ideas for things to invest in internally that will grow, so here's your money back"

I think it was in The Intelligent investor, but there was a whole breakdown about why dividends are not that great. Particularly in terms of medium growth companies or better, they're actually far better off not paying one, using that money internally to generate new returns, and as an owner if you want a 5% annual dividend, you're better off in the long run to merely sell 5% of your shares each year.

[Chuck Finley69]

While I'm quite happy that both the CFO and CEO bought shares, from an academic position I'm curious how they can. I had a friend who worked for BB as a low level engineer, and they said they were restricted in their buying to a few windows per year, to insulate them from any allegations of insider trading. Here you have two people who are literally the best informed in the world in terms of insider or unpublished info, and they can just buy willy nilly? None the less a vote of confidence is a vote of confidence.



I never understood why some people jones so hard for a dividend and it has me questioning if they know exactly what it is. It is not free money. It is at best a neutral transaction, generating no value.

Take BB, at $5.25 they have about .75 in cash, and 4.50 in enterprise value. That cash sits in their bank accounts. If they pay a special dividend of 0.75, the stock price will immediately plummet to 4.50, as now it represents 4.50 in enterprice value and nothing else. That 0.75 however instead of sitting in their account, now sits in yours, for a combined total of.... drumroll... 5.25!

I honestly do not see how putting another drag on cash would stabilize the price. If a company like BB, which has been more or less break even and cash flow neutral for years starts paying a dividend, eventually they simply run out of cash.

Further, if a growth company (like BB) starts giving all its cash back to investors, they can then come up short to fund actual growth(R&D, cashflow deficits for new businesses), which is the whole reason you invest in these sorts of companies in the first place.

The *only* time a dividend is appropriate, is when a company has excess and increasing amounts of cash, and truly has no good use for it. Think extremely stable companies in saturated industries with low or no growth such as banks or utilities. You simply aren't going to see 50% YoY growth at the power company, yet they still generate cash. There is really no good use for it inside the company, so they give it back to investors.

I would almost be worried if they started paying a dividend, because it almost signals "We have no good ideas for things to invest in internally that will grow, so here's your money back"

I think it was in The Intelligent investor, but there was a whole breakdown about why dividends are not that great. Particularly in terms of medium growth companies or better, they're actually far better off not paying one, using that money internally to generate new returns, and as an owner if you want a 5% annual dividend, you're better off in the long run to merely sell 5% of your shares each year.

You’re correct about ex-dividend and it’s actually recognized by exchanges.
If XYZ declares payable dividend to holders of record a/o 11/15 and is ex-div a/o 11/16 then ex date stock price and all limit orders are reduced by amount of dividend.

[bb_po]

Hello,
I am relatively new to this forum and would appreciate any comments.

Considering John Chen's pay package for 2019, timing, and tax consequence, I think his 50k shares insider purchase on 10-09-2019 @ US$4.90 per share is underappreciated by the market. The following is my rationale, comments welcome,
1. Pay package for 2019: His pay package consists of $1M cash + $2M bonus + 1M RSU vesting on 11-03-2019. The value of the 1M RSU is more than $5M as of 10-15-2019. Also, he can elect to receive his $2M bonus in shares instead of cash, if he has not elected yet. So why would he buy more stocks when his pay package is at least 62.5% in shares ($5M / ($1M + $2M + $5M)) while having the option to increase to 87.5% ($2M bonus all in shares)? Unless he thinks the share price is way too cheap?
2. Timing: As mentioned above, his 1M RSU is going to be vested on 11-03-2019. Does it really make sense to buy more just 1 month ahead? Also, this is the first time he buys shares from the open market since 2014. In fact, he has been selling millions of shares in November of 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively, right after his RSU were vested. Is he going to follow the past pattern and sell in November of 2019? So why is he buying shares in October? Is he expecting a meaningful increase in stock price within a month with no earnings report; otherwise, why takes such a risk to buy it now?
3. Tax consequence: Personal tax has to be paid in cash. Based on his pay package of 2019 and a conservative 30% federal income tax + 10% CA income tax, he is looking at at least $3.2M in ordinary income tax payable (not capital gain that can be be offset with loss) come 04-15-2020. That means if he elects the entire $2M bonus in cash and not sell anymore shares in 2019, the cash income for him from BB is a cash outlay of ~$50k. $50k cash outlay for him is probably negligible, especially considering the amount of cash he got from the share sales between 2016 and 2018. But for a man who cares so much about cash when operating a company, it is really interesting to see that he is willing to put out cash for working at a job for a year, especially when he will have more than 7M (4M directly + 1M RSU + 2M indirectly) shares (~$35M) by the end of 2019. So why is he willing to put out cash in BB?

Welcome any comments.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

My taught... is there is no question that today's price is a bargain.

This issue most have is they have been LONG on BB for a long time, and even with averaging down they really need $12 - $15 to see a profit. That is looking like a much longer window than the hoped. But a new buyers... little good news and we will be back to $8 in no time.

[Bacon Munchers]

I never understood why some people jones so hard for a dividend and it has me questioning if they know exactly what it is. It is not free money. It is at best a neutral transaction, generating no value.

Further, if a growth company (like BB) starts giving all its cash back to investors, they can then come up short to fund actual growth(R&D, cashflow deficits for new businesses), which is the whole reason you invest in these sorts of companies in the first place.

The *only* time a dividend is appropriate, is when a company has excess and increasing amounts of cash, and truly has no good use for it. Think extremely stable companies in saturated industries with low or no growth such as banks or utilities. You simply aren't going to see 50% YoY growth at the power company, yet they still generate cash. There is really no good use for it inside the company, so they give it back to investors.

I think it was in The Intelligent investor, but there was a whole breakdown about why dividends are not that great. Particularly in terms of medium growth companies or better, they're actually far better off not paying one, using that money internally to generate new returns, and as an owner if you want a 5% annual dividend, you're better off in the long run to merely sell 5% of your shares each year.

Thanks Seadog.
Yes, I recall M8 or another expert also stating that they were not in favor of BlackBerry offering dividends, but I can't help wonder if it would benefit BlackBerry somewhat in this particular case:

- They are experiencing huge swings in price, so volatility is almost unmatched right now; especially for a company with this caliber.

- They still have a relatively high cash trove.

- Investor sentiment is really low right now. With a dividend offer, I wonder if that would not raise comfort levels. I have heard a lot from the gang of long term holders here. If they were at least getting a realised return each term, that may keep them invested(?)

Use case here is an N of 1 of myself invested in LLOYD'S, as they offer a big dividend. Although the stock is a bit down from my entry, I feel more secure investing in them, knowing that is see something back each term. I then just cycle the dividend back into the stock, which benefits Lloyds too.

Just a thought from a novice investor.
Cheers man.

[EchoTango]

I never understood why some people jones so hard for a dividend and it has me questioning if they know It is not free money. It is at best a neutral transaction, generating no value.

If I might add some guidance for this post; dividends are typically related to earnings and not to cash on hand. The BOD will vote on issuing a recurring dividend or a one-time dividend under special circumstances. For example, most Canadian Banks issue dividends based on earnings, which in that business are relatively predictable, that enables them to offer this as a shareholder benefit. Typically the media/analysts represent this as a percentage yield against the share price. Special dividends are usually issued when the company divests (sells) a business which materially affects the value of the business and by extension the shares. There are other conditions which are typically related to windfalls.

In the case of Blackberry issuing dividends is like discussing "alien technology" given their inability to generate earnings despite making large investments and/or purchasing companies. We're now seeing Cylance being assimilated into the company and the potential of any revenue generating value seemingly dispersed into the wind. I might sight Good Technologies as further example of this effect ($420M) which today delivers virtually no appreciable revenues.

Blackberry continues to fight for its survival which at this point should have been left behind with the BB10 debacle. I know this all sounds so negative but my frustration with the current share price knows no bounds.

....and I'm a fan !

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

If I might add some guidance for this post; dividends are typically related to earnings and not to cash on hand. The BOD directors will vote on issuing a recurring dividend or a one-time dividend under special circumstances. For example, most Canadian Banks issue dividends based on earnings, which in that business are relatively predictable, that enables them to offer this as a shareholder benefit. Typically the media/analysts represent this as a percentage yield against the share price. Special dividends are usually issued when the company divests (sells) a business which materially affects the value of the business and by extension the shares. There are other conditions which are typically related to windfalls.

In the case of Blackberry issuing dividends is like discussing "alien technology" given their inability to generate earnings despite making large investments and/or purchasing companies. We're now seeing Cylance being assimilated into the company and the potential of any revenue generating value seemingly dispersed into the wind. I might sight Good Technologies as further example of this effect ($420M) which today delivers virtually no appreciable revenues.

Blackberry continues to fight for its survival which at this point should have been left behind with the BB10 debacle. I know this all sounds so negative but my frustration with the current share price knows no bounds.

....and I'm a fan !

If not for Good, BlackBerry wouldn't be here. BES was a terrible UEM for the non-BlackBerry platforms, it was Good's technology that allowed them to keep the BES customers (and Good) they had. But not much more than that.

The real problem is other than QNX... BlackBerry had nothing of value as a business in 2013. Chen's had to build what there is today.

I agree that dividend thing wouldn't work. Rather see them take a big loss and put $300K into Cylance development... if it's as great as they claim. That would speed up development and deployment of it. Before someone else beats them too being the IoT glue... and Cylance is just another thing they don't deliver on.

[Seadog83]

Thanks Seadog.
Yes, I recall M8 or another expert also stating that they were not in favor of BlackBerry offering dividends, but I can't help wonder if it would benefit BlackBerry somewhat in this particular case:

- They are experiencing huge swings in price, so volatility is almost unmatched right now; especially for a company with this caliber.

- They still have a relatively high cash trove.

- Investor sentiment is really low right now. With a dividend offer, I wonder if that would not raise comfort levels. I have heard a lot from the gang of long term holders here. If they were at least getting a realised return each term, that may keep them invested(?)

Use case here is an N of 1 of myself invested in LLOYD'S, as they offer a big dividend. Although the stock is a bit down from my entry, I feel more secure investing in them, knowing that is see something back each term. I then just cycle the dividend back into the stock, which benefits Lloyds too.

Just a thought from a novice investor.
Cheers man.

The huge difference between Llyod's and BB is that LLoyds generates significant amounts of earnings each year. At ~$3 and a P/E of ~10, that means in 1 year they'll have the same company more or less as today, PLUS $0.30 that was basically created out of thin air (by conducting their business). They can give some of that back to investors, then do it again.

BB on the other hand basically generates nothing tangible like money. Their value generation is in new technology, new systems, new ways of doing things which once they get settled and entrenched, should generate lots of actual cash 5-10 years down the road. You say that a dividend would allow people to realize some return, except that return will come off the back of the stock price, so you're truly no further ahead. LLoyds divided comes off the backs of profit so even after they give out the money, you still have the same company you had a year ago, able to generate more money. If BB starts doling out all their cash, it will compromise their ability to generate cash 10 years down the road since they can't invest in those technologies and systems I mentioned above.

Take LLoyds again, even if they didn't pay a dividend and kept all the cash internal, then the stock price would still appreciate by an amount equal to how ever much cash they generated. That's (one of) BB's key problems. They've been basically break even in terms of both profits and cash flow since forever, while at the same time one time items slowly erode the book value.

[Chuck Finley69]

It’s a vicious cycle. BB has completed the hardware exit but still isn’t super healthy. Plus, there’s a negative branding perception and penalty since dropping RIM name. I believe that RIM or Cylance name change would help but Chen has to be careful not to confuse the message. It’s still navigating a gauntlet for management.

[Bacon Munchers]

The huge difference between Llyod's and BB is that LLoyds generates significant amounts of earnings each year. ..

Yeah, I suppose yours and others' rebuttals are a more thorough explanation to what has been mentioned here before. Also, Lloyd's and BlackBerry aren't exactly a good comparison. What I meant to convey was that for months, Lloyd's was really below my buy in, and the only comforting thought I had in mind during the potentially long wait for Brexit news was the fact that at least I still gained a dividend. Of course, like BlackBerry, I believe in the long term story.

Not sure what else would move this BlackBerry SP needle...


.. oh wait! They should just sell more stuff!!

[BrooklynBerryAddict]

[QUOTE=Dunt Dunt Dunt;13455012]If not for Good, BlackBerry wouldn't be here. BES was a terrible UEM for the non-BlackBerry platforms, it was Good's technology that allowed them to keep the BES customers (and Good) they had. But not much more than that.

BES12 was a great MDM platform. UEM MDM is still based on the BES12 model. What BES12 was lacking was good container solution for iOS. BlackBerry purchased Good Technology basically for their Dynamics container solution and the market share Good had in the realm.