Licensing, cybersecurity power Blackberry earnings

Blackberry Ltd. beat quarterly profit and revenue estimates Friday, boosted by demand in its patent licensing and cybersecurity businesses, sending its shares up 10 per cent to a nine- month high.

Blackberry, once popular for its phones before losing out to Apple Inc’s iphones and Android devices, now offers data security software for corporations and government agencies, and software for driverless cars.

As part of the push into cybersecurity business, the company in February acquired Cylance, a California- based cybersecurity business whose software uses machine learning to avoid security breaches. Blackberry reported revenue of US$ 40 million from Cylance.

“The complete offering of

Cylance products and services will no doubt help drive stronger revenue growth next year,” chief executive John Chen said on a post-earnings call.

The company’s adjusted revenue rose 23 per cent to US$ 280 million in the third quarter ended Nov. 30, beating analysts’ average estimate of US$ 276 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

However, adjusted revenue in the company’s Internet- of-things business, which houses the technology solutions and enterprise software and services (ESS) units, fell 3 per cent to

US$145 million.

Chen had warned during the company’s second- quarter earnings call softness in the ESS business will linger for the next two quarters, primarily due to changes in its sales team.

The company reported a quarterly net loss of US$ 32 million, compared with a profit of US$ 59 million, a year earlier.

On a per share basis, its loss widened to 7 cents from 1 cent, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Blackberry earned 3 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 2 cents.