BlackBerry to stop making signature smartphone; revenue slumps

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[September 28, 2016]  TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd will outsource manufacturing of its once-core hardware, including its flagship smartphone, the Canadian company said on Wednesday as it reported another loss and sharp drop in revenue.

A posed Blackberry Pearl smartphone is seen at the Research in Motion (RIM) headquarters in Waterloo, November 16, 2009. REUTERS/Mark Blinch/File Photo
 

The company also said Chief Financial Officer James Yersh would leave effective Oct. 1 for personal reasons. It announced former Sybase executive Steven Capelli as his successor.

Shares of Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry moved higher following the news.

The net loss came to $372 million, or 71 cents a share, on revenue of $334 million, as the company booked $147 million in charges from its reorganization.

A year ago, it reported a profit of $51 million, or 24 cents a share, on revenue of $490 million.

Excluding one-time items, the company said it said broke even. On that basis, analysts had on average expected an adjusted loss of 5 cents a share on revenue of $393.75 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company raised its adjusted earnings outlook for the year to a range of breakeven to a 5-cent loss, compared with an earlier forecast of a 15 cent loss, after refinancing its debt and as margins improved.

The company's shares rose 6.7 percent to $8.35 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Alastair Sharp and Allison Martell; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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