Since the top job was handed to John Chen, BlackBerry has taken a number of extreme measures to cut down the rate at which it has been burning through cash. The company has been posting losses quarter after quarter, so it really needs to tighten the belt. It has sold off a huge chunk of real estate to raise money and has continued downsizing. Despite that, in the final quarter of fiscal 2014 ending March 1, BlackBerry posted a $423 million loss with revenue dipping 64 percent as compared to the same time last year, to just $976 million.
During the earnings call, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said that he is confident the company will reach a breakeven point by fiscal 2015. Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley begs to differ. While he commends BlackBerry for drastically cutting down costs, Walkley believes that long-term initiatives put in place by the new management might not bear fruit till fiscal 2016, implying that BlackBerry will continue to burn through its cash for another two years at the very least.
The analyst believes that BlackBerry will have to tighten its belt even more, since demand for its devices continues to plunge, its deal with Foxconn won’t be of much help either. BlackBerry has tapped Foxconn to manufacture its low-end and mid-range devices, which will be primarily geared towards emerging markets. BlackBerry Z3 is the first fruit of this partnership, announced at MWC 2014, its yet to be released. Chen did say that the Z3 will be released in major markets, with LTE compatibility, as well.
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