[Rice Dawg]

Profile of Ryan Permeh, Cylance co-founder and Chief Scientist and now BlackBerry's Chief Security Architect.

https://www.postbulletin.com/magazin...1aa303dcc.html

Agreeing to be profiled by his hometown magazine and then saying good things about BB should bode well for a longer tenure there as long as Chen & co. can keep him happy.

[rarsen]

Enough increasing concerns to involve some reputable solution suppliers:

The scariest hacks and vulnerabilities of 2019
https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-sc...24037827013043

NordVPN confirms data center breach
https://www.zdnet.com/article/nordvp...center-breach/

Alexa and Google Home devices leveraged to phish and eavesdrop on users, again
https://www.zdnet.com/article/alexa-...24037827013043

[Seadog83]

Some notable earnings yesterday, among which was Beyond Meat, which is similarly argued to be well in bubble territory. Despite a modest beat, stock is getting crushed today, and I just can't help but laugh at the difference in reaction compared to BB.

The top story and yahoo finance when I checked was"Beyond Meat earned a profit for the first time so the bears should probably shut up"

Including such notable quotes as:

Earnings are being ignored

Somewhat oddly, Beyond Meat’s stock traded down about 7% in the after-hours on the report. The stock skidded 12% in pre-market trading on Tuesday. With a bear raid still apparently in effect on Beyond Meat’s stock

Keep in mind, a spate of recent deals with Dunkin’ Brands (DNKN) and McDonald’s (MCD) aren’t even reflected in the company’s third quarter.

So when a darling (maybe former?) gets punished harshly, it's bear raids and ignored fundamentals.

When BB gets punished harshly, it's missed guidance (quoting GAAP or Non-GAAP depending on which is worse) problems with the business, and poor sales from a segment they haven't been involved with in years (phones). Then to complete the article they throw in an picture of a BB curve phone from over a decade and 2 CEOs ago.

[Corbu]

https://twitter.com/JohnChen/status/1189598102858162176

kellyweng88, La Emperor, rarsen and 3 others like this.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Some notable earnings yesterday, among which was Beyond Meat, which is similarly argued to be well in bubble territory. Despite a modest beat, stock is getting crushed today, and I just can't help but laugh at the difference in reaction compared to BB.

The top story and yahoo finance when I checked was"Beyond Meat earned a profit for the first time so the bears should probably shut up"

Including such notable quotes as:





So when a darling (maybe former?) gets punished harshly, it's bear raids and ignored fundamentals.

When BB gets punished harshly, it's missed guidance (quoting GAAP or Non-GAAP depending on which is worse) problems with the business, and poor sales from a segment they haven't been involved with in years (phones). Then to complete the article they throw in an picture of a BB curve phone from over a decade and 2 CEOs ago.

Wait... isn't BB getting punished because of poor sales from their UEM division? It's their fundamentals that are being questioned.

If not for Cylance and the possibilities it offers, I'd hate to think where they'd be. QNX is still a strong "little" division, but the Enterprise Software is the heart of their revenues... weakness there is VERY troubling.

I don't think anyone valued the Licensing Program for phones... least of all Chen as he hasn't said much about it in year and half.

[Corbu]

https://crackberry.com/will-blackber...wn-smartphones
Will BlackBerry return to building its own smartphones?

[Corbu]

OT:
https://mobilesyrup.com/2019/10/30/f...r-update-2020/
Ford unveils Sync 4 and details over the air update strategy

https://www.wired.com/story/ford-hug...-updates-cars/

[Corbu]

Law360 (October 28, 2019, 4:15 PM EDT) -- BlackBerry Corp. filed a complaint late Friday in Delaware Chancery Court alleging one of its former high-ranking officers had violated a noncompete clause by taking a job with protection services software company SentinelOne, in what BlackBerry claims is a continuing effort to poach its talent.

BlackBerry and BlackBerry Cylance contend that Chris Coulter, who was previously a vice president at BlackBerry and also a high-ranking officer at artificial intelligence cybersecurity firm Cylance Inc. before it was acquired by BlackBerry earlier this year, “cannot possibly perform his job duties for Sentinel without disclosing or using plaintiffs’ confidential information.”

As part of BlackBerry’s merger with Cylance, which was completed in February, Coulter “executed a joinder agreement as a material inducement to BlackBerry to consummate the merger transaction, and BlackBerry agreed to pay Coulter approximately $2,250,000 for his equity interest in Cylance,” according to the suit.

Per that agreement, Coulter agreed not to compete with Cylance, accept employment with a Cylance competitor for at least two years upon leaving Cylance, or to solicit its employees customers, the suit said. In July, Coulter joined SentinelOne as senior director of threat services, BlackBerry asserts.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

https://crackberry.com/will-blackber...wn-smartphones
Will BlackBerry return to building its own smartphones?

Why would he say that.... outside of the FANS that are investors, I doubt many BB shareholders want to hear that.

[EchoTango]

Why would he say that.... outside of the FANS that are investors, I doubt many BB shareholders want to hear that.

To be fair, it was an off-the-cuff comment in response to a jockular request. Unfortunately, many fans still feel a sense of loss and jump on any comment even remotely related to Blackberry reentering the device market.

Fact is the device market continues to commoditize and prices are stabilizing in preparation for the inevitable fall. Apple continues to raise its prices with corresponding decreases in unit sales numbers which, not surprisingly, they will no longer report.

I do agree there is a need for a business centric device but the numbers are just not there to make it profitable.

[Corbu]

Senior Vice President and Chief Security Architect Ryan Permeh recently presented on the core aspects of BlackBerry's Zero Trust Architecture at the BlackBerry World Tour New York event that took place at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

[he_x3]

Why would he say that.... outside of the FANS that are investors, I doubt many BB shareholders want to hear that.

I wonder how much not having a (strong) device offering impacts the company's UEM offering.

[Bacon Munchers]

Why would he say that.... outside of the FANS that are investors, I doubt many BB shareholders want to hear that.

I actually would, but only if BlackBerry states that it will only be for the corporate interest and not try to race to the bottom of margin, along with Samsung and others.
The main negative image people have had was that bb10 was trying to stay relevant with iOS and Android with the apps, along with lack of supporting developers was the real nail in the coffin.

We have heard snippets since inception of Chen stating how he "has always loved the BlackBerry..." so it is no surprise to hear that he still holds that notion of one day reviving the device in some capacity. (perhaps just one per two year run?).
It may be a little telling that if he is toying with the notion, that financially, things are good over there....
If BlackBerry was under water, I doubt he would even utter the 'handset' word.

[Bacon Munchers]

I wonder how much not having a (strong) device offering impacts the company's UEM offering.

Probably not much if we look at the Microsoft model, but with the name 'BlackBerry' still being used, I think the general world sentiment is something like "...but wait! Isn't BlackBerry a phone? So why are they still calling themselves BlackBerry, instead of maybe Research in Motion?"

Heh.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

I wonder how much not having a (strong) device offering impacts the company's UEM offering.

I don't know of any hardware/software solutions at this point... and too be honest it's been a long time since it's really been a thing. BB10 was never widely used, and BBOS has long been out of use in most big regulated industries and government.

The answer for their UEM issues is being competitive... not bringing back a hardware component.

The idea of BlackBerry switching to a highly secure device manufacture has been kicked around here... since BB10 flopped in 2013. I've even taught it was a good idea, a $1,500 a unit low volume device.... but back then I was thinking two or three million units a year. Now I don't think there is a market for such a device... if there were Silent Circle or Boeing would still be making hardware.

[Corbu]

OT: MOBL
https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...RdYOj2VdwnuKwa

MOBL misses on revenue due to softness and guiding to a decline or flat

[Bacon Munchers]

OT: MOBL
https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...RdYOj2VdwnuKwa

MOBL misses on revenue due to softness and guiding to a decline or flat

If I can speak for many here:

Shocker.

On the other hand, looks like a solid base is under us with what appears to be higher lows.
Need Lagoon to confirm that.


Also, according to Value walk's verification:

Overall, six analysts have issued a Sell rating; 17 have rated the stock as a Hold, while two have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. Presently, BlackBerry has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $8.84 per share, and presently, 18.9% of the company’s shares are sold short, up 2.4% (not bad).

[Seadog83]

OT: MOBL
https://www.businesswire.com/news/ho...RdYOj2VdwnuKwa

MOBL misses on revenue due to softness and guiding to a decline or flat

Very interested to see the market reaction over the next few days.

Similar situation as BB finds itself in, although in BB's corner the EMM only represents something like 40% of their business, and the market still felt it just to punish them to the tune of 1/3rd their value, almost valuing that part at zero, despite the fact that all other segments met or exceeded expectations.

As Rice Dawg (I believe) so succinctly pointed out, if you have a business that isn't growing, and isn't profitable, then you don't really have a business at all. Unfortunately for MOBL, that represents 100% of what they're doing. While I doubt it will happen since the market likes to treat BB as "special", If they painted MOBL with the same brush as they did BB, I'd expect a decline of 75%+ over the next few days.

[Corbu]

OT:MOBL

Morgan Stanley

James E Faucette

Europe Turns Into a Pumpkin

Challenging macroeconomic environment in Europe leads to Q3 miss on revenue and EPS. Expect weakness into next year to impact growth of UEM market and adoption of new products among existing customers. Lowering PT to $6.

Weakness in Europe hits revenues and earnings in Q3, as customers defer orders. A challenged macroeconomic environment in Europe hit MOBL's end customers, causing them to defer orders, in some cases indefinitely. As a result, the top and bottom line came in lower than expected, with Germany and the UK in particular (MOBL's second and third largest markets) facing macroeconomic challenges. Prior to this quarter, MobileIron had shown improvement in execution amid its ongoing business model transition, and has shown improvement in North America. While we will still be looking closely at MOBL's execution and new product adoption, with ~50% of MOBL's revenues being international, we have to reduce our PT from $8 to $6. We could turn more positive in 2020 if the European market were to recover, or if new zero trust identity products were successful (still single digit attach rates).

Improvement in European market will be key to the bull case. In Germany, macroeconomic weakness has hit MobileIron's customers, who have turned to cutting costs and delaying orders of UEM (unified endpoint management) software. In particular, manufacturing and financial services customers (45% of ARR in Germany and Switzerland and 33% of ARR in EMEA) saw weakness. In the UK, Brexit uncertainty has led to a pause in buying decisions. Beyond the macroeconomic challenges, we will be looking for MOBL's new products, Mobile Threat Defense and Access, to get traction with their 19K core UEM customers (nearly double the ARPU). We are not more bullish today as penetration is only high single digit of installed base a year plus into introduction, but think the opportunity with their recently introduced zero trust solution and further penetration of threat defence and access represent the biggest source for MOBL to outgrow expectations. While competitors are large and well-funded, we would note that with the zero trust security space still in its infancy, strategic activity could increase for solutions that gain traction.

ARR growth slowed to 14% (from 19% in Q2). MobileIron reported Q3 non- GAAP revenue / EPS of $52.2mm / ($0.00), below our expectation of $52.7mm / $0.01. ARR growth slowing to 14% from 19% last quarter makes it unlikely to meet targeted ARR growth by 20% exiting the year. Gross margins were 82.0%, essentially in-line with expectations and ~330bps less Y/Y as threat detection products gain adoption.

Remain EW, lowering PT from $8 to $6. We are lowering our valuation on MOBL from 3.5x EV/20e revenue to 3.0x given change in end market environment, a discount to comparables. We are lowering our bull case to $11 from $13 (5.5x from 6.5x revenue) to account for reduced opportunity for new products to be successful. Our bear case remains $4 given there are fewer liquidity risks as company hovers around profitability breakeven. Risks to achieving our PT are worsening macro in the rest of the world, consolidation in the space or solution introduced by smartphone vendor.

[Chuck Finley69]

Wow! That's my weak spot right there! How am I going to hide that machine? Thanks!

BlackBerry stock is doing well today. The general market is backing up but BB has its Golden Cross on the daily chart. This is where the 50-dma cuts up through the 200-dma showing us that the market is bullish on BB. In addition, the stock has tested both indicators and bounced off them confirming the sentiment. The stock gave back a buck from the recent highs but we are seeing some life in it today.

I purchased a PC the other day and I'm in the midst of building it up for speed. I've missed coming to this site for that reason. Following CrackBerry on my phone just isn't the same as sitting back with a drink and taking my time. Take care all and thanks for some really interesting posts to this thread.

Thanks again for the picture, I never grow tired of looking at those cars.

Just checking in to see how you’re doing.

[BanffMoose]

(hope I don't jinx us, but) Can we have many, many more days like this please? General indices up about 1% but BlackBerry (and other stocks discussed here) up 3%-4.x%?

Please?

[Sigewif]

(hope I don't jinx us, but) Can we have many, many more days like this please? General indices up about 1% but BlackBerry (and other stocks discussed here) up 3%-4.x%?

Please?

It will take a lot of up days for me to break even on BB. However, I did buy a few shares when it was close to the (we hope) bottom.

[Corbu]

BlackBerry Drops Patent Suit Against Twitter, For Now
https://www.law360.com/ip/articles/1...witter-for-now

BlackBerry Drops Patent Suit Against Twitter, For Now

Law360 (November 1, 2019, 4:35 PM EDT) -- BlackBerry Ltd. on Thursday voluntarily dropped infringement allegations against Twitter Inc. involving three of its targeted ad and mobile messaging patents, after a California federal judge found in October that four related patents are invalid under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling.

In a three-page notice, the smartphone maker informed U.S. District Judge George H. Wu that it voluntarily dismissed its infringement claims involving U.S. Patent Nos. 9,349,120; 8,286,089; and 9,021,059 without prejudice — meaning the company can still pursue its claims involving those patents in the future.

BlackBerry didn’t explain its reason for dropping the claims.

The voluntarily dismissal comes four weeks after Judge Wu issued an order that invalidated four other patents that BlackBerry asserted against Twitter. However, in his ruling, the judge allowed BlackBerry two weeks to amend and narrow its allegations involving two of the four patents he invalidated.

Judge Wu later granted BlackBerry's request to extend that deadline until Oct. 24, but the company didn't file a revised complaint and instead filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of the three remaining infringement claims on Thursday, according to the docket.

Counsel and representatives for Twitter declined to comment Friday. Counsel and representatives for BlackBerry didn’t immediately respond Friday to requests for comment.

BlackBerry sued Twitter in February, alleging the social media platform ripped off its patented technology. BlackBerry has also asserted the same or similar patents in suits against Facebook Inc. and Snapchat Inc., but as of Friday, BlackBerry had not voluntarily dismissed any patents in those cases, according to the docket.

In May, Twitter asked Judge Wu to throw out the suit, arguing in a motion to dismiss that all of the claims are invalid under the high court's Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International ruling, which first looks at whether a patent is directed to an abstract concept and, if so, whether it adds an inventive concept that makes it patent-eligible.

Meanwhile, in BlackBerry's litigation against Facebook and Snap, the parties filed dueling summary judgment motions, with the social media companies also arguing that the patent claims should be invalidated under Alice.

In October, Judge Wu tackled all of the dispositive motions pending before him and handed out a mixed bag of validity and infringement rulings, throwing out some claims, but keeping intact others.

In a sealed opinion, he also chided BlackBerry, Facebook and Snap for pushing the court's resources by filing six “twenty-plus-page” dispositive motions before exchanging expert reports. As a result, he placed strict page limits on the parties' future filings.

The patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent Nos. 8,676,929; 8,296,351; 9,349,120; 9,021,059; 8,286,089; 8,572,182; and 8,825,777.

BlackBerry is represented in-house by Edward R. McGah Jr., and by James R. Asperger, Yury Kapgan, Pushkal Mishra, Victoria F. Maroulis and Jordan R. Jaffe of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.

Twitter is represented by Nicholas Groombridge, Jenny C. Wu, David J. Ball Jr. and J. Steven Baughman of Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP and Ekwan E. Rhow, Grace W. Kang and A. Howard Matz of Bird Marella Boxer Wolpert Nessim Drooks Lincenberg & Rhow PC.

The cases are BlackBerry Ltd. v. Facebook Inc., case number 2:18-cv-01844; BlackBerry Ltd. v. Twitter Inc., case number 2:19-cv-01444; and BlackBerry Ltd. v. Snap Inc., case number 2:18-cv-02693, in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

--Additional reporting by Dani Kass. Editing by Bruce Goldman.

[Seadog83]

Wait... isn't BB getting punished because of poor sales from their UEM division? It's their fundamentals that are being questioned.

If not for Cylance and the possibilities it offers, I'd hate to think where they'd be. QNX is still a strong "little" division, but the Enterprise Software is the heart of their revenues... weakness there is VERY troubling.

I don't think anyone valued the Licensing Program for phones... least of all Chen as he hasn't said much about it in year and half.

While this past quarter was not great, it was a bit of an anomaly. My point was more along the lines of BYND takes a 20% hit, and the #1 headline on one of the biggest finance sites screams: "The bears are wrong, the market is wrong, you should still buy this stock!" Contrast that with the previous 7/8 quarters where BB lost over half it's market cap despite beats on the top and bottom lines for the majority. Everyone was going out of their way to find the gray cloud in a silver sky. The entire message was "Despite great numbers, Blackberry is a bum stock, well because Blackberry". While I'm not sure how much an effect the MW article had on the price, the fact it was released within minutes of earnings, then reposted for posterity should say something.

BlackBerry Drops Patent Suit Against Twitter, For Now

...after a California federal judge found in October that four related patents are invalid under the U.S. Supreme Court’s Alice ruling.

...issued an order that invalidated four other patents that BlackBerry asserted against Twitter[/B]....

...However, in his ruling, the judge allowed BlackBerry two weeks to amend and narrow its allegations involving two of the four patents he invalidated.
...

In May, Twitter asked Judge Wu to throw out the suit, arguing in a motion to dismiss that all of the claims are invalid under the high court's Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International ruling, which first looks at whether a patent is directed to an abstract concept and, if so, whether it adds an inventive concept that makes it patent-eligible.

Meanwhile, in BlackBerry's litigation against Facebook and Snap, the parties filed dueling summary judgment motions, with the social media companies also arguing that the patent claims should be invalidated under Alice.

In October, Judge Wu tackled all of the dispositive motions pending before him and handed out a mixed bag of validity and infringement rulings, throwing out some claims, but keeping intact others.

THIS is exactly what I'm talking about. By all counts you would take this as spectacular news, particularly if you're familiar with he history of what's transpired. Litigation ongoing for potentially years. Likely millions of dollars invested, 3/7 patents found to be valid, 2/7 invalid, 2/7 potentially either way if BB could amend the scope and convince the judge. Some patents the same as in the FB/SNAP cases and thy continue to trundle ahead instead of removed if BB honestly felt it was a waste of time. If I recall correctly a lawyer specialized in arbitration was brought in some months ago, so with all these facts, the most reasonable explanation is that a settlement of some sort was reached. But like BLU/Avaya et al, I'm sure this is the extent we'll hear about it.

Yet that's not what the article implies. 6 times. That's how many time it's brings up invalidated patents or Alice. The entire voice of the article is that BB had lost on 4/7 patents, was *somehow* destined to lose on the other 3, so they decided to cut their losses. This is what I take issue with.

[kellyweng88]

While this past quarter was not great, it was a bit of an anomaly. My point was more along the lines of BYND takes a 20% hit, and the #1 headline on one of the biggest finance sites screams: "The bears are wrong, the market is wrong, you should still buy this stock!" Contrast that with the previous 7/8 quarters where BB lost over half it's market cap despite beats on the top and bottom lines for the majority. Everyone was going out of their way to find the gray cloud in a silver sky. The entire message was "Despite great numbers, Blackberry is a bum stock, well because Blackberry". While I'm not sure how much an effect the MW article had on the price, the fact it was released within minutes of earnings, then reposted for posterity should say something.





THIS is exactly what I'm talking about. By all counts you would take this as spectacular news, particularly if you're familiar with he history of what's transpired. Litigation ongoing for potentially years. Likely millions of dollars invested, 3/7 patents found to be valid, 2/7 invalid, 2/7 potentially either way if BB could amend the scope and convince the judge. Some patents the same as in the FB/SNAP cases and thy continue to trundle ahead instead of removed if BB honestly felt it was a waste of time. If I recall correctly a lawyer specialized in arbitration was brought in some months ago, so with all these facts, the most reasonable explanation is that a settlement of some sort was reached. But like BLU/Avaya et al, I'm sure this is the extent we'll hear about it.

Yet that's not what the article implies. 6 times. That's how many time it's brings up invalidated patents or Alice. The entire voice of the article is that BB had lost on 4/7 patents, was *somehow* destined to lose on the other 3, so they decided to cut their losses. This is what I take issue with.

Well i'm not sure this would be considered good news. Comparing to the avaya case, it was known that both parties mutually agreed to dismiss the case and that it could not be re-filed. Then the settlement happened.

With this twitter case it just looks like blackberry decided to not pursue for the moment but can still re-file later. If anything this sounds like "bad" news to me