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It had previously warned that this quarter’s financial results would be bad, and on Friday Blackberry confirmed that it lost nearly $1 billion in its most recent quarter. The Canadian smartphone manufacturer is up for sale, and insurance firm Fairfax Financial says it’s considering making an offer.
Ian Austen with The New York Times reported, “Facing an uncertain future and a highly conditional takeover bid, BlackBerry said on Friday that it lost $965 million on sales of $1.6 billion during its fiscal second quarter. The loss mainly reflected a $934 million write-down of a growing inventory of unwanted BlackBerry Z10 phones, the devices that the company had hoped would restore its fortunes, as well as $72 million in charges related largely to layoffs.”
Bloomberg’s Hugo Miller added, “Sales in the Americas, an area the company once dominated, fell faster than anywhere else, tumbling 56 percent to $610 million.”
CNNMoney’s Julianne Pepitone noted, “In what could be the understatement of the year, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said in a press release that the company is ‘disappointed’ with the results. ‘We understand how some of the activities we are going through create uncertainty, but we remain a financially strong company with $2.6 billion in cash and no debt,’ Heins insisted.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Will Connors recalled, “Last Friday, the embattled smartphone maker warned it would report a hefty operating loss, mostly due to a nearly $1 billion charge on inventory of unsold phones, and said it would lay off 4,500 employees. On Monday, BlackBerry announced that it reached a preliminary deal with its biggest shareholder—Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.—to take the company private for about $4.7 billion, or $9 a share.”
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