[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

This was during the time when BlackBerry used to develop everything from scratch and wasted billions, and when John Chen came in he advocated for licensing products that already existed on the market. To come to think of it this made 100% sense especially for the situation the company was in at the time, and is very startup thinking - you only have a finite amount of resources, they should be put on what matter the most (core enterprise products) instead of things that may or may not make money.

Licensing came long before Chen... BB10 has a number of key apps/services that were licensed. That's the thing, BlackBerry was always on a different scale than Google and Apple and couldn't afford to reinvent the wheel at ever turn. The Video and Music Services in BBW, Keyboard, Maps, Assistant, Travel... so it isn't a new concept.

That they used another company to provide the services for the short lived BBM Meetings was probable very wise. Especially with how poorly cross platform BBM worked at that time.

[rarsen]

General information with Watsa number of BB shares remaining unchanged:

Tracking Prem Watsa's Fairfax Financial Holdings Portfolio - Q2 2018 Update
https://seekingalpha.com/article/419...?source=nasdaq
BlackBerry Ltd. (BB): BB is Watsa’s largest position at ~24% of the portfolio. The stake was first purchased in 2010 at around $50 for 2M shares. Since then, the position was aggressively built up to 46.7M shares (~9% of the business). His cost-basis is ~$17 and the stock currently trades at $9.95. There has only been very minor activity in the last five years.

[Corbu]

Rarsen, you might find this interesting regarding Fairfax.

From our friend Zenas: "13F of Fairfax, note Converts as well as Stock listed"

[morganplus8]

General information with Watsa number of BB shares remaining unchanged:

Tracking Prem Watsa's Fairfax Financial Holdings Portfolio - Q2 2018 Update
https://seekingalpha.com/article/419...?source=nasdaq
BlackBerry Ltd. (BB): BB is Watsa’s largest position at ~24% of the portfolio. The stake was first purchased in 2010 at around $50 for 2M shares. Since then, the position was aggressively built up to 46.7M shares (~9% of the business). His cost-basis is ~$17 and the stock currently trades at $9.95. There has only been very minor activity in the last five years.

It looks as though the normally scheduled Hate-JC Supremist rally has been cancelled for today so we won't be receiving the minutes of the meeting from that.

In its place, I would like to talk about Prem Watsa and FairFax Inc. investments in BlackBerry.

It seems that the SA author didn't want to deal in depth with the facts surrounding the ownership of BlackBerry over the past five years so I'll take a quick shot at it myself.

It is true, Prem purchased 2 MM shares at roughly $ 25.00/shr many years ago. After that, he had amassed 51.9 MM shares at prices as low as $ 5.50/shr/US making this whole idea of a $ 17.00/shr average questionable at best. In addition, in 2014, after appointing John Chen as CEO, he sold, on record, 5.2 MM of those shares above $ 10.00/shr.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/fai...ares-1.2644386

You can see his balance of shares in this article:
https://www.fairfax.ca/news/press-re...s/default.aspx

On top of that, he actually sold a total of just over 9 MM shares (including the 5.2 recorded sale) in a series of purchases and sales of stock that no one felt was important enough to report. And so his disposition is much higher and his average is much lower than everyone likes to state. He is a very shrewd investor who right-sided his initial common stock investment and made a handsome profit on his bond investment in BlackBerry over the years.

It is common knowledge that Prem wouldn't have made all of these investments in BlackBerry if he wasn't able to hire John Chen. If the SA article had made an attempt to look at all of the transactions made by FairFax during 2013, he would see why Prem is pleased with this investment. The initial purchase of 2 MM shares at much higher prices has faded in the past due to his ability to right-side the investment during 2013 and then selling a large block in 2014. Obviously it would take a great deal of time to figure out how Fairfax handled the transactions of 2013 but it is clear to me at least that his adjusted cost basis is much lower than anyone wants to give him credit for today. The moral of the story is that if you pace yourself and try not to go all in on any investment, at any given time, you have the ability to right-side something that looks terrible on paper. What Prem did was average down, something that many say should not be done as you are now chasing a poor investment into the ground. But Prem also had the ability to hire the right CEO for the job and to finance the company into its recovery. So he is special in that way.

My second point is that that you should be wary of articles that state something as true, do your own homework or ask questions and dig deeper into statements. Prem is in great shape with BB and for this reason I would want to know at what price does he feel he could walk away from the entire investment itself?

This was a public announcement from the people who love John Chen. GL

[W Hoa]

Interesting new developments at Jaguar-Land Rover were revealed as part of an investor presentation.

The presentation also talked about the company’s next-generation infotainment system and the slides show the system will be always on, always connected, always listening and always up to date.

The infotainment systems will also receive over-the-air updates and have a unique hardware upgrade cartridge concept. Little is known about the latter, but the image suggests swapping out old infotainment systems for newer systems could be streamlined.

QNX would seem to have a major role in all of this:



https://www.carscoops.com/2018/08/ja...ee-new-models/

[bapebape]

Morgan, if you could spare some time do you know why eypt price is falling below management levels ? and do you have any thoughts on the recent sphs earnings report ?

thank you

[Corbu]

http://www.embedded-computing.com/au...john-wall-qnx#
Five minutes with ... John Wall, QNX

[morganplus8]

Morgan, if you could spare some time do you know why eypt price is falling below management levels ? and do you have any thoughts on the recent sphs earnings report ?

thank you

I'll try to make it brief, stop looking at the price of the stock! EYPT is in a race to fill all of the corporate positions necessary to take their company live. They have to hire staff, the latest is John Weet this week, and appoint directors to the board before we approach Nov. 5th. The comp packages for the last 5 hires ranges from $ 1.83/shr to the low $ 2.00's and this won't change. Once Weet gets his comp package, and assuming there are no other hires, the stock can/will be released to go higher. Don't watch the price of the stock as it means nothing, focus on what the company is doing to prepare for their go live launch this Fall. The stock will pop and stay at higher levels when everyone has their compensation package in place.

SPHS - Earnings mean nothing, the COD of the patient is the news and unlike your aunt Phillis who fell down 3 flights of stairs, this determination takes months. It is completely out of the hands of the company and when they get the results they will release everything immediately. They aren't holding anything back, they don't know what the ruling will be, they can't plan next steps until it is clear. Despite claims of the two step dosing being the most important factor in the future of this company, that is all wrong. The data is compeling for 450 plus patients and that is a huge sample size when you are talking about ablation. Again, the results from the COD are so important as that data effects $ 10's of millions of investment dollars. Stop looking at the price of the stock and follow what the company is doing and what it is saying.

EYPT is a no brainer, SPHS carries some risk but that data on first dosing is so compeling that we need to get past the COD so that they can establish next steps.

Best of luck.

[Corbu]

Thanks for taking the time, Morgan.

[bapebape]

I'll try to make it brief, stop looking at the price of the stock! EYPT is in a race to fill all of the corporate positions necessary to take their company live. They have to hire staff, the latest is John Weet this week, and appoint directors to the board before we approach Nov. 5th. The comp packages for the last 5 hires ranges from $ 1.83/shr to the low $ 2.00's and this won't change. Once Weet gets his comp package, and assuming there are no other hires, the stock can/will be released to go higher. Don't watch the price of the stock as it means nothing, focus on what the company is doing to prepare for their go live launch this Fall. The stock will pop and stay at higher levels when everyone has their compensation package in place.

SPHS - Earnings mean nothing, the COD of the patient is the news and unlike your aunt Phillis who fell down 3 flights of stairs, this determination takes months. It is completely out of the hands of the company and when they get the results they will release everything immediately. They aren't holding anything back, they don't know what the ruling will be, they can't plan next steps until it is clear. Despite claims of the two step dosing being the most important factor in the future of this company, that is all wrong. The data is compeling for 450 plus patients and that is a huge sample size when you are talking about ablation. Again, the results from the COD are so important as that data effects $ 10's of millions of investment dollars. Stop looking at the price of the stock and follow what the company is doing and what it is saying.

EYPT is a no brainer, SPHS carries some risk but that data on first dosing is so compeling that we need to get past the COD so that they can establish next steps.

Best of luck.

Thank you morgan for the comments, and the reminder to stop looking at prices. Appreciate it very much . =)

[Corbu]

QNX / Sweden:
http://www.tritech.se/single-post/20...-BlackBerryENG

Tritech and BlackBerry QNX sign distribution agreement

15, August 2018 - Tritech Solutions, part of Tritech Technology group, announced today that it has entered into a distribution agreement with BlackBerry QNX. Under the terms of the agreement, Tritech will provide the safety-certified and secure BlackBerry QNX platform and professional services for transportation and general embedded applications across Sweden and Finland.

Tritech’s joins BlackBerry QNX’s growing list of value added integration partners. Through this partnership Tritech will offer off-the-shelf hardware and software building blocks that enable OEMs to optimize their development efforts and shorten their time-to-market, often with the support of Tritech’s engineering teams, providing hardware, software as well as test and verification services.

BlackBerry QNX is a global leader in safety-certified, secure and reliable real-time operating systems for mission-critical applications and products where functional safety and cybersecurity are vital requirements. Based in Ottawa, Ontario, BlackBerry QNX has provided the foundational software for many of the world’s most mission-critical and safety-critical systems for the past 37 years. Its software can be found in hundreds of millions of applications across industries including automotive, medical, industrial, consumer, defense and aerospace, and networking.

Tritech has been supporting OEMs in the Nordic region for more than 25 years, by designing and delivering embedded and connected systems with demanding requirements for reliability and availability. The company has been enabling customer solutions across industries from transportation, defense and medical to industrial automation and energy. Today the company offers standard products, turnkey solutions and design services targeting a wide range of industry verticals, with a focus on intelligent systems and industrial IoT applications.

Patrik Björklund, director of sales at Tritech Solutions, comments: “These are interesting times in our industry, with intelligent and connected systems being pervasive, and edge AI applications driving a new breed of embedded devices. Many industries are looking at autonomous systems and issues like high reliability, functional safety and cybersecurity are increasingly important. BlackBerry QNX is perfectly positioned to help customers to overcome these challenges, and we look forward to collaborating with BlackBerry QNX and our customers to build great products.”

Kaivan Karimi, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing at BlackBerry Technology Solutions (BTS), comments: "As diverse industries, from high-speed rail to large scale manufacturing, become increasingly hyperconnected, the importance of building these systems on a safety-certified and secure software foundation increases significantly. We look forward to forging a strong partnership with Tritech to help organizations across transportation, medical and industrial automation to develop safer, more secure systems.”

[DREXcb]

It would be nice to see QNX sponsoring something like this.

Forum for the process and discrete industries, Digitizing and Securing Industry, Infrastructure, and Cities, July 5-6, 2018, Wind River participated as a global sponsor. With over 250 delegates, informative presentations, and interactive discussions, this event provided an excellent opportunity for networking and knowledge sharing. In his keynote address, Ricky Watts, Director, Industrial Solutions, Wind River, discussed the company’s critical infrastructure solutions across various industry verticals via case studies.

[rarsen]

Hi DREXcb, the past Bengalore event in July seems more aligned towards the general industrial software and not specific to software security. I'm also surprised that GE which has a very large Technology R&D Center there since year 2000, is not even part of the Industrial Sponsors. IMHO Watsa originally from India and due to the size of its market, would make sure that BB would be present where it really matters. So I have questions on the relative importance of this Conference among all those out there, when considering BBs' area of interest.

[smithm565]

Were they headed back to court for FB & SNAP lawsuit today?

https://www.law360.com/articles/1069...kberry-patents

Posted via CB10

[curves2000]

Hi everyone,

Wondering when BlackBerry reports their Q2 results? Usually I can find this information on their site easily under investor relations but I'm having a little challenge. Ironically using a Passport to find the info.

I really hope we have some positive momentum on the revenue side and the outlook improves. I'm a John Chen supporter but I'm getting a little on the inpatient side, been a shareholder since early 2011, need to start seeing some solid numbers.

Cheers to all

Posted via CB10

[Corbu]

Wondering when BlackBerry reports their Q2 results?

Hi curves2000,

AFAIK, nothing has yet been announced. Likely on the third or fourth week of September.

[smithm565]

https://www.law360.com/articles/1075...ry-merger-suit

Posted via CB10

[DREXcb]

At least the money in the Good settlement isn't coming from BlackBerry. Looks like D&O insurance is on the hook.

[DREXcb]

Hi DREXcb, the past Bengalore event in July seems more aligned towards the general industrial software and not specific to software security. I'm also surprised that GE which has a very large Technology R&D Center there since year 2000, is not even part of the Industrial Sponsors. IMHO Watsa originally from India and due to the size of its market, would make sure that BB would be present where it really matters. So I have questions on the relative importance of this Conference among all those out there, when considering BBs' area of interest.

Hi Rarsen I track the IIOT space quite closely and it just surprises me to not see QNX a more active player there given their history in the space. I get that they would need to find the right niche to keep from blowing a bunch of money. GE spent a couple billion on Predix and it has yet to pay off and has been retracting somewhat.
Thanks for your perspective.

[Corbu]

What You Need to Know About Ransomware | Inside BlackBerry

[Corbu]

La Emperor and rarsen like this.

[Corbu]

La Emperor likes this.

[morganplus8]

Hi everyone,

Wondering when BlackBerry reports their Q2 results? Usually I can find this information on their site easily under investor relations but I'm having a little challenge. Ironically using a Passport to find the info.

I really hope we have some positive momentum on the revenue side and the outlook improves. I'm a John Chen supporter but I'm getting a little on the inpatient side, been a shareholder since early 2011, need to start seeing some solid numbers.

Cheers to all

Posted via CB10

Hey, my best guess would be September 27th this year (on a Thursday). They will announce it a week or two prior but they always seem to report in the final week or as Corbu suggests, the final two weeks of September. I too want to hear something positive now that they have amended their accounting rules and that's behind them now. Future numbers should reflect growth more clearly. GL

[La Emperor]

Hi Morgan,

Thanks for the ACB call. Caught the $6 dip a few days ago and been riding it since.

La E

[La Emperor]

UEM roll out in NZ. Small but give us some insight on things going on in this competitive space.

" The healthcare management organisation's chief information officer Alistair Vickers said the big drawcard for the UEM was its low cost and a simple per-user licence, and Windows 10 laptop compatibility.

Local telcos bidding for the three-year device management contract lost out to Blackberry integrator ISEC7 as they asked for pricier and more complex per-device licensing schemes, Vickers said."


https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/...ectid=12110976