The IT Nerd

BlackBerry this morning put out their fiscal Q1 2016 numbers and the results were not good. In short, the company posted $658 million U.S. of revenue and a $28-million loss Tuesday after adjustments which works out to five U.S. cents per share. Before adjustments, BlackBerry had a net profit of $68 million U.S. or 13 cents per share.

That caused shares in the company to drop in early trading because it missed the street’s expectations. Now the good news. BlackBerry cut a deal with Cisco to cross license a number of patents:

BLACKBERRY Limited  and Cisco today announced that they have entered into a long-term patent cross-licensing agreement covering their respective products and technologies.

As part of the cross-licensing agreement, BlackBerry will receive a license fee from Cisco. Specific terms of the deal are confidential.

This is an interesting development, but not a new one. BlackBerry and Cisco have a long history of technical cooperation. Thus I am guessing that this deal will only deepen those ties.

Hot on the heels of cutting jobs just before the weekend comes this report that a lot of big name companies might be in the market for BlackBerry:

Canadian telecommunications company BlackBerry Ltd. has once again made their ways into the news with lot of gossiping taking place about its acquisition, and this time there’s Microsoft at the other end of the story.

Sources even claim that few other tech companies like Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei are also amongst those interested in positively spinning their chances off with BlackBerry.

Microsoft is reportedly working with few investment firms to assess their chances of taking over BlackBerry, planning to upgrade its intensity in the business mobile solution segment and its patent portfolio in the Internet of Vehicles (IoV), as well as mobile platform and communications sectors.

Sources also claim that Chinese smartphone manufacturers are mainly intended to invest in BlackBerry so that they can improve their brand visibility across US and European business sectors.

Now, this isn’t the first time that rumors of a buyout have surfaced. But I decided to run with this one as it seems a little more than ironic that these rumors have surfaced after the company turns a profit. That may be enough for one of these companies to believe that there’s something here that’s worth buying. Or it could just be another rumor with no substance.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Clearly BlackBerry isn’t out of the woods just yet as news appeared just before the weekend that some more BlackBerry employees were laid off:

BlackBerry Ltd. said Friday it is laying off an undisclosed number of employees in its device business including those focused on development of smartphone software and applications. 

The move is part of the company’s goal of boosting sales of higher margin mobile-management and security software to reignite growth, it said.

Well, that’s unfortunate for those involved. But BlackBerry says it is still “committed” to putting out devices:

BlackBerry remains committed to the device business, having released since September a string of new smartphones aimed at professionals with more planned for this year. But the Waterloo, Ontario, company is increasingly betting on new mobile software aimed at fostering worker productivity and security for BlackBerrys, Apple iPhones, and devices powered by Google Inc.’s Android and other operating systems.

We’ll see if that is the case going forward.

I’m not sure how I missed this, but this past Monday Etobicoke North MPP Shafiq Qaadri had this to say about the mandatory use of BlackBerry technology in the Ontario Legislature:

“This approach is handicapping, retarding and penalizing MPPs, their staff and indeed all members of the legislative community,” the Liberal MPP said.

The comment is offensive in multiple ways. I’ll leave it to you to figure out what way the comment is offensive. Not to mention that MPP Qaadri doesn’t know what he is talking about. Something that BlackBerry pointed out late on Sunday night:

Our CEO @JohnChen rebuts MPP Shafiq Qaadri’s factually incorrect & offensive comments http://t.co/GHbPUWzyKN

— BlackBerry (@BlackBerry) May 11, 2015

The blog entry that is part of the Tweet is from BlackBerry CEO John Chen and highlights this:

I join the many, many people across Canada calling on him to apologize and explain why he chose to use derogatory references to people with disabilities in a petition ostensibly about technology. We are dismayed‎ by Mr. Qaadri’s behavior that reflects poorly on all of Canada – and especially to Canadians with disabilities who are incredible contributors to the nation.

Then points out this:

Quite simply, BlackBerry is the most secure system for protecting individual security and privacy. That’s why all G7 governments and 16 of the G20 governments are BlackBerry customers. BlackBerry has more than 70 security approvals and certificates – more than any other mobile solution. The top 10 largest global law firms, the top 10 largest automotive companies, the top 10 global pharmaceutical/healthcare companies, and top five largest oil and gas companies all use BlackBerry.

My take on this is that MPP Shafiq Qaadri needs to apologize for his offensive comments and he needs to do so now. Otherwise, he’s a poor representative of the sitting government in Ontario.

The BlackBerry Leap, an affordable all-touch smartphone in a modern and powerful design is now available in Canada. The BlackBerry Leap is designed for consumers and enterprise users who value security and privacy when pushing their productivity to the next level.

A variety of accessories including cases, carrying solutions, chargers, and audio peripherals, are also available through the carrier partners or ShopBlackBerry. It will be available at the usual carriers such as Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless, Sasktel, and WIND Mobile. Telus reached out to me to say that Telus customers can get it starting at $0 on a 2-year term or $360 outright.

BlackBerry has also introduced three new Accessory Value Bundles that include an unlocked BlackBerry Leap with accessories for additional savings. The BlackBerry Leap Efficiency Bundle, BlackBerry Leap Travel Bundle and BlackBerry Leap Power Bundle are available today on ShopBlackBerry.

BlackBerry recently put up a blog post from BlackBerry’s Chief Security Officer, Dave Kleidermacher where he addressed recent news that U.S. President Barack Obama’s sensitive (but unclassified) e-mails were accessed by Russian hackers. The blog post discusses lessons learned and importance of setting appropriate security measures for organizations to avoid being the next target to make headlines – like Sony, Home Depot and the Anthem Inc. Breach.

According to a recently commissioned global survey of individuals in 1000+ employee companies who are responsible for governance, risk and compliance for their organization:

• The majority of enterprises (70 percent) admit that they are more tolerant of risk than they should be.
• Only 1 in 4 indicated that they were ‘very satisfied’ with the security their current mobility strategy gives them.
• The survey showed that companies know what could hurt their reputation and bottom line, but they’re not necessarily taking steps to mitigate these risks.

I’d take a look at this blog post as it is very informative read.

Today BlackBerry announced a white version of the BlackBerry Classic smartphone. The white colored BlackBerry Classic is available this week in Indonesia through authorized distributors, and in Hong Kong through carrier partners csl, 3 Hong Kong and SmarTone, and authorized distributors Broadway Photo Supply Ltd, Fortress, Hong Kong Suning, Chung Yuen Electrical Co., Ltd and Nuance-Watson (HK) Ltd. This new color option will continue to roll out over the next few weeks online and in carrier retail stores across select countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

For more details, check out this press release and blog post.

Yesterday during the annual RSA Conference in San Francisco, BlackBerry made several announcements to reaffirm its leadership in cybersecurity and expand secure mobility solutions for customers.

• Acquisition of WatchDox: BlackBerry has entered a definitive agreement to acquire WatchDox Ltd., which offers the most secure enterprise file-synch-and-share (EFSS) solutions. The addition of WatchDox will extend BlackBerry’s commitment to help organizations securely connect employees with each other and with corporate information across all mobile and desktop platforms. Here’s a press release and a  blog post on this acquisition.
• Establishment of the BlackBerry Center for High Assurance Computing (CHACE): BlackBerry’s global security R&D team will collaborate with academic institutions and industry groups to drive innovation and improvement in computer security. CHACE will extend BlackBerry’s state-of-the-art competencies in vulnerability prevention and enable the application of high assurance security research to real-world products and services. Here’s a press release and a blog post on this.
• Launch of a new managed PKI certificate service: BlackBerry subsidiary Certicom will help device manufacturers and service providers secure their IoT networks and ecosystems with the service, which is designed to scale up to hundreds of millions of connected devices. Here’s a press release on this.

It looks like BlackBerry is really looking to further assert itself in the security space. Let’s see if it helps them to gain further traction.

BlackBerry has often been declared dead. Admittedly, I’ve said that. Though I changed my tune when I saw the BlackBerry Passport and declared it to be the best smartphone of 2014. Now it seems that others have joined the party. Satmetrix released its Net Promoter Industry Benchmarks today. What are these? I’ll let them explain:

the full reports offer an expanded and enhanced view of customer experience, featuring information about the key factors that drive consumer loyalty (loyalty drivers) specific to each industry sector.

BlackBerry was recognized for having the largest overall NPS increase and received high grades from customers based on the improved quality of its viewing:

BlackBerry showed the largest overall NPS increase in this year’s study. While many analysts had left this company for dead, BlackBerry received high grades from customers based on the improved quality of its viewing screen and appears to be on the rebound in the smartphone sector.

Not bad for a company that was supposed to be done like dinner. Clearly something is going right in Waterloo.