BlackBerry says progress made in lowering costs as it reports slimmer Q2 loss

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This article was published 26/09/2024 (435 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BlackBerry Ltd. executives said the company has made good progress in its efforts to cut costs as it reported a slimmer loss in its latest quarter than the prior year.

“This was a good quarter for BlackBerry,” said CEO John Giamatteo on a call with analysts.

“The hard work that the team has done with managing costs is really paying off, with operating expenses now significantly lower than prior year.”

BlackBerry reported a net loss of US$19 million in its second quarter, compared with a US$42-million net loss a year earlier.

The Waterloo, Ont.-headquartered company says revenue for the quarter ended Aug. 31 was US$145 million, up from US$132 million during the same quarter last year.

The company says revenue for both its cybersecurity and Internet of Things divisions grew by double digits year over year. Revenue for the cybersecurity division was US$87 million, while the Internet of Things division brought in US$55 million.

BlackBerry has been working on splitting the two divisions. It announced the planned split last October, saying it intended to pursue a subsidiary public offering for the Internet of Things business after evaluating a range of strategic alternatives for the company.

The company made “tremendous progress” on the split during the quarter, said Giamatteo, with much of the “low-hanging fruit” out of the way.However, he said the company is trying to strike the right balance as it tackles some of the more complicated parts of the split.

“Some of these things are naturally a little bit more intertwined,” he said.

This past quarter, BlackBerry said its adjusted operating expenses came in at US$99 million, down from US$114 million a year earlier.

In February this year, BlackBerry announced it was cutting 200 jobs and exiting six of its 36 global office locations.

“Cost remains a key focus going into the second half, and during September, we announced a number of further back-office headcount reductions and facilities closures as we continued to streamline operations,” said Tim Foote, the company’s new chief financial officer, on the call.

“The new management team at BlackBerry has managed to thread the needle of significantly reducing costs, while at the same time managing to stabilize the top line and even drive growth,” Foote said.

Foote’s appointment was announced near the end of July, succeeding Steve Rai. He was most recently the CFO for BlackBerry’s cybersecurity division.

The company raised the bottom end of its full-year guidance for its Internet of Things division.

Diluted loss per share came in at three cents US, compared with seven cents US last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 26, 2024.

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Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version has the incorrect revenue number for BlackBerry’s second quarter in the previous year.