Saturday, 21 June 2014

Blackberry shares jump on surprise $23m profit

BlackBerry phones

Shares in Blackberry closed up 9.6% on Wall Street after the troubled smartphone maker reported a surprise profit.
Net profit for the three months to the end of March was $23m (£14m), compared with an $84m loss a year earlier. Revenue was down 69% at $966m.
Cost-cutting and higher profit margins helped the company offset the big drop in revenues.
Blackberry is trying to fight back after losing market share.
This week, it agreed a deal to license Android applications from Amazon's app store.
Excluding a one-off accountancy gain and restructuring charges, the company made an adjusted loss of $60m during the quarter. Gross profit margins were 46.7%, up from 33.9% a year ago.
'On track'
Under new boss John Chen, the company has embarked on a turnaround plan aimed at focusing more on its services arm, while putting a renewed emphasis on its keyboard devices.
"Our performance [in the quarter] demonstrates that we are firmly on track to achieve important milestones, including our financial objectives and delivering a strong product portfolio," said Mr Chen, who took over the company in November last year.
"Over the past six months, we have focused on improving efficiency in all aspects of our operations to drive cost reductions and margin improvement. Looking forward, we are focusing on our growth plan to enable our return to profitability."

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