BlackBerry Ltd. reported a second-quarter loss of $965 million US, or $1.84 US per share, including a $934-million US writedown on unsold phones and a restructuring charge of about $72 million. For its second quarter results for fiscal 2014, released Friday, Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry reported revenues of $1.6 billion US and the shipment of 3.7 million smartphones. Revenues fell 49 per cent from $3.1 billion US in the first quarter and 45 per cent from $2.9 billion US in the same period a year earlier. BlackBerry hopes to go private after Toronto investment firm FairFax Financial...
Canadian pension funds the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and the Alberta Investment Management Corp. held “preliminary discussions” with FairFax Financial Holdings Ltd. about financing its proposal for a takeover of BlackBerry Ltd., Bloomberg News reported Thursday. FairFax said Monday it made an offer to lead a consortium to acquire the Canadian smartphone maker for $4.7 billion US, or $9 US per share, and take it private. The consortium is not complete and FairFax is still seeking partners to support financing from Bank of America Merrill Lynch and BMO Capital Markets....
Takeover bids for Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry Ltd. officially began after Toronto investment firm Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. said it made an offer to acquire the Canadian smartphone maker for...
BlackBerry Ltd. plans to talk to the federal government about Canada's foreign takeover rules as the company holds discussions with potential buyers, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. BlackBerry registered with the federal...
Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. is still debating whether it will participate in a potential acquisition of BlackBerry Ltd., and Canada’s pension plans aren’t yet ready to join any such...
BlackBerry laid off 60 employees following the reduction of more than 300 employees over the summer. BlackBerry spokeswoman Kim Geiger said in an emailed statement that the company “is moving a small number of US-focused...
Former BlackBerry board member Prem Watsa, currently the chairman and CEO of BlackBerry’s largest investor, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., is putting together a bid for BlackBerry Ltd., the Sunday Times reported. The newspaper reported Sunday that Watsa was “closing in on a rescue deal” after assembling “billions” for a bid. Watsa has the backing of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Times said. The newspaper, citing anonymous sources, reported that “several other large pension funds are expected to join the consortium.” BlackBerry...
BlackBerry Ltd.’s board of directors is pushing for a speedy auction process to sell off the company or its divisions and hopes to have the process completed by November, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a report citing...
BlackBerry Ltd. CEO Thorsten Heins would receive an estimated $55.6 million payout if he loses his job following a sale of the company, Bloomberg said. In a report Friday, Bloomberg said a BlackBerry proxy circulated in May...
BlackBerry Ltd. should sell off or shut down its smartphone manufacturing business as the company begins a special review of its “strategic alternatives” amid slow smartphone sales,...
Three more BlackBerry Ltd. executives are leaving the company, following last month’s layoffs of 250 staff. CBC News reported Wednesday that Doug Kozak, vice-president of corporate information and technology operations;...
Two executive-ranking officials with BlackBerry Ltd. left the Waterloo, Ont.-based company, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. They were T.A. McCann, a vice-president responsible for social media functions, and Marc...
Machine-to-machine communications will become more important in the mobile wireless sector as the QNX operating system, the foundation of BlackBerry’s new BB10 operating system, is in 60 per...
Toronto-area and U.K. retailers have seen “broad sell-outs” and “generally limited stock” of BlackBerry’s new Q10 smartphone, Jefferies Group LLC analyst Peter Misek said. “Based on our store checks, the BlackBerry Q10 has been selling extremely well and has been...
Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. ordered 3,000 BlackBerry 10 smartphones for its corporate employees across Canada, marking the largest corporate order yet of BlackBerry’s new line of phones, the Canadian Press reported Friday. In...
BlackBerry said it plans to ask the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission for reviews of a “false and misleading report” about the return rates of the company's new Z10 smartphone. "Sales of the BlackBerry Z10 are meeting expectations and the data we have collected from our retail and carrier partners demonstrates that customers are satisfied with their devices," BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins said in a statement Friday. "Return rate statistics show that we are at or below our forecasts and right in line with...
BlackBerry’s second new BB10 smartphone, the keyboard-enabled Q10, will be available in Canada at the end of April, Canadian wireless carriers said. Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. will be the first to...
BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis launched a new $100-million investment fund to foster innovation in quantum technologies. The fund, called Quantum Valley Investments, said in a release Tuesday that it “will provide...
Industry Minister Christian Paradis said he wants BlackBerry to remain a “Canadian champion” and that national security interests could prevent a foreign takeover of the company, Reuters...
Early sales of BlackBerry’s new Z10 smartphone appear to have beat investor expectations in three countries though early indications suggest lower presale levels in the United States, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue...
BlackBerry received a single order for one million BlackBerry 10 smartphones, “the largest ever single purchase order in BlackBerry's history,” the company said in a release Wednesday. Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry, formerly called Research In Motion Ltd., launched its Z10 smartphone in Canada on Feb. 5 and will release the device in U.S. markets on March 22 in partnership with AT&T Inc. Analysts have said the success of the new BlackBerry 10 devices, including the Z10 and the not-yet-released Q10, will be pivotal for the company’s ability to rebound from a slide in global market share, with sales falling to 4.3 per cent of smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2012, according to IDC. BlackBerry also said Wednesday that WhatsApp Inc. launched a version of its popular WhatsApp Messenger application for the...
Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley dropped his February shipment estimate for BB10 smartphones from 1.75 million to 300,000. In a research note Monday, Walkley said “store surveys” conducted by Canaccord in Canada...
BlackBerry does not plan to release its new BB10 devices in Japan, according to news reports. “Japan is not a major market for BlackBerry and we have no plans to launch BlackBerry 10 devices there at this...
OTTAWA--BlackBerry, formerly RIM Ltd., is holding a series of “white glove” events around the world to showcase its new BB10 devices to government and business customers and generate word...
BlackBerry has appointed Richard Lynch and Bert Nordberg to its board of directors, the company said Thursday. In a release, BlackBerry said Lynch previously held the position of executive vice-president of Verizon Communications...
Thornsten Heins, president and CEO of RIM Ltd., said Feb. 5 was the “best day ever” in sales for the launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone in Canada. “In fact, it was more than 50% better than any other launch...
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) changed its name to BlackBerry and launched its new BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system Wednesday. “As we launch BlackBerry 10 around the world, now is the right...
Research In Motion Ltd.’s updated mobile application store will allow BlackBerry users to rent and download popular songs, movies and TV shows, the company said. In a release Monday, RIM said phones running on its new...
Lenovo Group Ltd. could be looking to acquire Research In Motion Ltd. as it considers acquisition targets and strategic alliances to bolster its mobile-device business, Bloomberg reported Thursday. “We are looking at all...
The latest iteration of Research In Motion Ltd.’s secure enterprise service is now available for corporate clients to download, the company said Wednesday. In a release, RIM said its BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 will allow its enterprise clients to manage devices and applications and to connect mobile phones over a secure network. It added that the product will be the first to work with devices on its new BlackBerry 10 operating system, which the company will launch next week, and will also allow companies to manage devices that operate on Google Inc.’s Android operating...
RIM Ltd.’s backend mobile payment system has gained the approval of Visa Inc., allowing partnering carriers to support Visa-operated cards from authorized financial institutions, the company said Wednesday. In a release,...
Research In Motion Ltd. reported lower third quarter losses, lower sales of its BlackBerry smartphones and, for the first time, a loss on its subscriber base, the company said in a quarterly earnings report released Thursday. RIM...
BlackBerry users around the world can talk to each other for free over an updated BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) app that includes a new voice service, Research In Motion Ltd. said. In a release Wednesday, RIM said the new version of...
Research in Motion Ltd. ranked No. 1 among Canadian companies' spending on research and development in 2011, according to an analysis by firm Research Infosource. The list, released in October, said RIM spent $1.54 billion on...
Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. led smartphone shipments during the third quarter of 2012 as RIM Ltd. moved up to rank third and Nokia Co. dropped off the list of top five smartphone manufacturers, research firm IDC said Thursday. Samsung led shipments in the third quarter with 105.4 million units worldwide, IDC said. Apple ranked second with 26.9 million smartphones shipped and RIM third with 7.7 million. Behind RIM, Chinese company ZTE Corp. shipped 7.5 million smartphones and HTC Corp. 7.3 million. Nokia continues to rank high in global mobile phone shipments, as opposed to...
Research In Motion Ltd. reported slowed subscriber growth and the third straight quarter of declining device sales as the company warned of “continued pressure on operating results” for another six months. In a...
Canadian consumers increasingly use smartphones and tablets running Google Inc.’s Android operating system, a new Ipsos-Reid poll said Tuesday. In a release, Ipsos said its latest Mobil-ology study found Android-powered...
Worldwide smartphone sales increased year-over-year by 42.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2012 despite a 2.3 per cent decline in overall cell phone sales, research firm Gartner Inc. said in a new...
Mobile operating systems by Google Inc. and Apple Inc. powered 85 per cent of all smartphones shipped in the second quarter of 2012, the International Data Corporation (IDC) said Wednesday. IDC cited its Worldwide Quarterly...
Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research In Motion Ltd., said Tuesday that the Waterloo, Ont., company is not nearing “the end.” “In recent weeks, it’s become fashionable for pundits and market watchers to...
Research in Motion Ltd. has appointed former Verizon Wireless lawyer Steve Zipperstein as the company’s new chief legal officer, the company said in a release Thursday. Zipperstein, who previously served as a general...
Research In Motion Ltd. will delay the launch of its Blackberry 10 operating system until 2013, the company said Thursday as it reported a loss in its first quarter results. "Our top priority going forward is the successful...
Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) will not separate itself into two businesses and remains committed to its restructuring plan, the company said Monday. The company on Monday reacted to a story published in London’s The Sunday...
Former Research In Motion Ltd. executives and founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie will receive nearly $12-million in a pair of post-employment payouts, the Canadian Press reported on Thursday. According to documents filed with security regulators Thursday, RIM will pay Balsillie $7.9 million following his resignation as co-CEO in January, the news agency reported. Lazaridis, who also resigned from his co-CEO role but who remains with RIM as the vice-chair of the company’s board of directors, will receive $3.9 million in compensation, the document said. RIM said that...
Research In Motion Ltd.’s use of the BBM moniker for its popular BlackBerry Messenger service does not infringe BBM Canada’s trademark on the three-letter name, a Federal Court ruled...