Blackberry looks toward a new age in smartphone production, and strives to modernize and compete with a new contract. UPI/John Angelillo |
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Dec. 20 (UPI) Blackberry issued Friday morning its first quarterly earnings under new leadership, showing a net loss of $4.4 billion. But the former tech giant has new plans for its future, and that means new software and hardware development outsourced to China.
Blackberry's new CEO John Chen took the helm of the company in November, when Canadian firm Prem Watsa injected the company with $1 billion. He announced Friday along with first-quarter earnings that Blackberry struck a deal with China's Foxconn Technology Group, which will design new phone hardware. Blackberry will continue to develop its own software.
Blackberry lost $4.4 billion, or $8.37 a share, for the quarter. This compares profits of $14 million, or 3 cents a share, in the year-ago period. The loss was largely due to unsold inventory. The company's revenues dropped 24 percent to $1.2 billion down from $2.7 billion in the year-ago period.
Regardless, shares spiked almost 12 percent in midday trading in response to the Foxconn deal as investors grew more optimistic about the struggling company's outlook. Foxconn is the world's largest manufacturer of electronic products, and also supplies for Apple.
Prem Watsa invested in the company after Fairfax Financial halted a potential buyout offer in November for $4.7 billion. At the same time, Blackberry's then chief executive, Thorsten Heins, was ousted making way for John Chen.
Blackberry faces heating competition in the mobile realm, competing with technology giants Apple and Google, which have both announced aggressive rollouts of new mobile technologies including slightly larger smartphones with bendable sensor screens.
[Time]
[NY Times]
[Bloomberg]
