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BlackBerry profit beats on higher fee from licensing, patented tech – Reuters Canada


Visitors attend the Blackberry booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain February 25, 2019. REUTERS/Rafael Marchante

(Reuters) – BlackBerry Ltd’s quarterly profit topped analysts’ estimates on Friday, helped by a sharp rise in fees for licensing and using its technologies as it develops more software and solutions for customers.

The company’s U.S.-listed shares rose nearly 7 percent before the opening bell.

Revenue from its licensing and intellectual property division, which includes handing out licenses for BlackBerry’s existing patents to other companies, rose 71 percent to $99 million in the fourth quarter.

The company, which dominated the smartphone market nearly a decade ago before losing out to Apple Inc’s iPhones and Android devices, has been trying to win investor confidence and make money by selling software to manage mobile devices to corporations and government agencies.

Revenue from BlackBerry’s technology and solutions segment, which includes software used in next-generation autonomous cars, rose nearly 20 percent.

The segment houses QNX software, which is used in more than 120 million cars worldwide, and allows carmakers to offer a range of features such as infotainment, connectivity, in-car network security, advanced driver assistance system and over-the-air software update platform.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company’s net profit was $51 million, or 8 cents per share, in the quarter ended Feb. 28, compared with a loss of $10 million, or 6 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned 11 cents per share, beating the average analyst estimate of 6 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Revenue rose 9 percent to $255 million.

Reporting by Debroop Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel



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