BlackBerry’s profit beats expectations

TORONTO: Canada’s BlackBerry Ltd, reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings, as operating costs nearly halved, and said it expects to be profitable on an adjusted basis in 2018. The company’s US-listed shares were up nearly 5 per cent at $7.29 before the bell. BlackBerry has shifted away from making its once-iconic smartphones to building a software business, which includes mobile device management products and the QNX industrial operating system.

The company’s adjusted revenue from software and services rose 12.2 per cent to $193 million in the fourth quarter ended on February 28, from the preceding quarter.

BlackBerry said it received more than 3,500 enterprise customer orders in the quarter. “Looking ahead to fiscal 2018, we expect to grow at or above the overall market in our software business,” Blackberry Chief Executive John Chen said in a statement.

Chen said BlackBerry expected to be profitable on an adjusted basis and generate positive free cash flow for the year ending on February 2018.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company’s net loss narrowed to $47 million or 10 cents per share in the fourth quarter, from $238 million or 45 cents per share, a year earlier. The prior-year quarter included a loss of $127 million related to the sale of certain assets. Excluding one-time items, the company earned 4 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected the company to break even, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. — Reuters