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BlackBerry, the Canadian smartphone maker formerly known as RIM — aka Research In Motion — will start trading under its new name on February 4, with its new ticker symbols effective from the start of trading on that day.
BlackBerry said it will trade as BBRY on the Nasdaq, and as BB on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
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Blackberry is rallying this afternoon on reports that the company has received an order for 1 million BB10 smartphones from one of its carrier partners. The street appears to be taking this as a big vote of confidence ahead of next week’s US launch.
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
BlackBerry, which announced in August that it was entertaining bids, has drawn a number of interested parties though little in the way of concrete offers. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., BlackBerry’s largest investor, signed a tentative agreement to acquire the smartphone maker for $4.7 billion last month — without naming its buyout partners or showing that it has lined up financing. Cerberus Capital Management LP is looking at BlackBerry’s books, while Lenovo Group Ltd. has also expressed interest in a BlackBerry deal, according to people familiar with the matter.
To me the stock remains an interesting story, would be interested to see how the buyout firms would value the stock.
Could BBRY become the next BBY type story?
BlackBerry Ltd is abandoning a plan to sell itself and instead will replace its chief executive officer and raise about US$1 billion from institutional investors, including its largest shareholder, the smartphone maker said on Monday. Shares of BlackBerry dropped 19% to US$6.33 in premarket trading. The company will raise the money with a private placement of convertible debentures. BlackBerry’s largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, will take up $250 million of the debentures. Fairfax announced a tentative US$9-a-share offer for the Waterloo, Ontario-based company in late September. But Reuters said on Friday that Fairfax was struggling to finance the US$4.7 billion bid.
Wow...I guess I should really be surprised about the lack of information on this company. Some key things to note that has changed is the management. There have been changes to the CEO position as well as several others that I'm way too lazy to look up. But for the information that I do keep track of is from their earning reports. They're not losing as much money as they used to be before the management change. Their EPS in March was reported to be $-0.08 and in June was $-0.11. Both had beaten analyst estimates and from the reports of sales of their services and products I've been getting from outside of North America, it looks like they might be closer to a positive EPS next ER if not a positive. Compared to the quarters before, this is a rather large change.
Now, I've actually taken some call contracts in the company so my views might be biased. With that disclaimer out of the way, the next ER will decide where and how I take my profits on this company. If their next ER shows a positive EPS, I'll be taking profit on the long side but if they post a negative EPS, I'll be selling my calls and buying some puts to take profit on the short side. I don't really expect a lot out of the upcoming ER because it won't have sales information from their new products like the Blackberry Passport or the remade Blackberry Classic. Not to mention that due to the form of advertising they're doing for their MDM services, they won't be generating revenue in that sector until January of 2015. Meaning a lot of revenue from what's probably their biggest product coming out, the BES 12, won't be shown until the March 2015 ER.
I think the turnaround is going to be a success. Might not be right away is all.
Include a little "man on the street' research too...with your analysis.
Have you visited an AT&T store lately? The corporate stores NO LONGER carry Blackberrys!
I got the Z10 last Black-Friday(2013) on the $200 promotion. It died (brick dead) mid January-2014. They shipped a spankin' brand new one from Mexico (remember they moved manufacturing). THAT 2nd Z10 died (another brick) 1st week of March-2014. Countless hours spent with tech support. Digital River finally said they would completely refund my purchase price and NOT replace with a third Z10.
What did I do? Some handed me $100 Alcatel from T-mobile. I got it unlocked and continued with AT&T service until my contract renewed in July. I then dropped AT&T completely and moved over to T-Mobile with a Samsung Galaxy S5. Android took me as close as possible back to the BB experience. ( gosh I miss my BB! ). But life goes on...
Verizon has only a USA focus, so discounted them. AT&T was just too expensive for data and out-of-country usage.
There is a new product introduction coming up on Sept 24.... it looks a bit clunky as a phone due to its square design but then they are not aiming at the normal "iPhone/Galaxy" market...they have always been more of a business application product...so perhaps the square design would be more functional....time will tell I suppose.
Alphanator: Not sure what you mean by "man on the street" research. Unless you mean actually seeing people with Blackberry devices around. In which case, I actually have been seeing them around but I'm also Canadian. From what I understand, most of the US telecoms don't carry it or only carry a small supply of it. Not to mention that 2013 was a very bad year for the company. The products were rushed and the ads weren't even properly made to sell the phones or what Blackberry was actually strong at. Things have changed since then though. The upper management team has been changed for the most part including the CEO. There was also a major overhaul to the OS released on January 28th (I guess your Z10 just missed it ) and they're going to be doing another soon as well with the release of the Blackberry Passport. They're different enough to be considered a new OS. They're also bringing back an improved but older phone design (which looks like the Bold to me) that's called Blackberry Classic. It has the trackpad of the Bold and it's also touch screen enabled, seems bigger, and has the physical keyboard. In terms of sales, I expect the Classic to do better than the Passport but who knows how people will react to something different.
I didn't know there was a manufacturing place in Mexico. Not sure if they're still made there or if Foxconn is making them in their home country of Taiwan. I wasn't paying attention to the company at the time to be honest since I wasn't really seeing that many Blackberry phones. I started seeing them around May of this year (especially Q10s) and that's when I looked into things. I'm hoping to play around with a Z30 next week and am planning to get a Passport since it caters to my needs. I use a mix of the charts and financial statements to see how a company is doing and for the past two quarters, they've beaten analyst estimates by at least a surprise of 50%. BlackBerry Limited (BBRY) Earnings Report Date - [AUTOLINK]NASDAQ[/AUTOLINK].com
I encourage you to do your own DD though of course. The sentiment is still fairly mixed as they're not expected to finish their turnaround until February 2015.
Underexposed: You're right, they're not trying to sell to the typical consumer market. They're playing their strengths and seem to have set their sights on businesses. They also seem to be ignoring the US market for the time being and focusing on other countries that are starting to see growth in their economy. Which would make sense if what Alphanator is saying about there being no Blackberry phones from companies like AT&T. They're also trying to move to make more of their revenue come from their software offerings more than their devices. I'm looking to see how they monetize their QNX and IoT.
I use websites like Nasdaq.com or Yahoo to help with my charting. Going to be trying out Finviz when I get the chance and see what they're like as I get more comfortable. I like Nasdaq the most so far for the financials. Google doesn't seem to report all the details and excludes some like the basic EPS but their Option chain page looks nicer. Still a lot for me to learn though.
) and they're going to be doing another soon as well with the release of the Blackberry Passport. They're different enough to be considered a new OS. They're also bringing back an improved but older phone design (which looks like the Bold to me) that's called Blackberry Classic. It has the trackpad of the Bold and it's also touch screen enabled, seems bigger, and has the physical keyboard. In terms of sales, I expect the Classic to do better than the Passport but who knows how people will react to something different.