CEO John Chen said the company has established a roadmap that will allow it to target a return to improved financial performance in the coming year. The CEO added that that the company's Enterprise Services, Messaging and QNX Embedded businesses were already well-positioned to compete in their markets and that the most immediate challenge was how to transition the Devices operations to a more profitable business model.
The company recognised hardware revenue on 1.9 million BlackBerry smartphones, compared to 3.7 million in Q2. Most of the units recognised were BlackBerry 7 devices. During the quarter, around 4.3 million BlackBerry smartphones were sold through to end customers.
The loss from continuing operations was USD 4.4 billion, or USD 8.37 per share diluted, including a one-off pre-tax impairment charge of USD 2.7 billion, a pre-tax inventory charge of USD 1.6 billion, and pre-tax restructuring charges of USD 266 million related to the company's CORE programme and its strategic review process. This compares with a profit from continuing operations of USD 14 million, or USD 0.03 per diluted share the year earlier. The adjusted loss from continuing operations reached USD 354 million, or USD 0.67 per share diluted.
For the fourth quarter, BlackBerry said it will maintain its strong cash position and further reduce operating expenses as it continues to implement its previously-announced cost reduction programme.
