BlackBerry Ltd (NYSE: BB) stock fell over 8% on 22nd, Jun2 2018 (as of 2:03 PM GMT-4;Source: Google finance) after investors focused on weak growth in software revenues due to a change in accounting standards. The company has posted better than expected results for the first quarter of FY 19 driven by strong growth in its high-margin software and services business. Software revenue, the company’s most important growth metric, was reported of $83 million, which is 18 percent lower than the same time last year. The analysts at RBC Capital Markets had estimated it would be $106 million, according to a note to clients. The company is on track to transition almost all of its software revenue to subscriptions from the older style licenses. As part of the transition, the company is focusing on making software for next-generation driverless cars based on its QNX platform. BB, 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.
BB in the first quarter of FY 18 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of 3 cents, which is as per the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of 3 cents, according to Thomson Reuters. The company had reported 9.4 percent fall in the adjusted revenue to $213 million in the first quarter of FY 18, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $208 million.
Meanwhile, BB has entered into a partnership with Bullitt Group, which is a British smartphone and consumer electronics maker, to develop new highly-secure connected devices that are certified as “BlackBerry Secure.” Bullitt has planned to embed BlackBerry cybersecurity technology into a range of rugged Cat (Caterpillar Inc.) and Land Rover branded products to address the needs of their security-conscious consumer and enterprise customers. Bullitt Group holds global mobile licenses from Caterpillar Inc. and Land Rover, and has a growing portfolio of connected device products covering the rugged, lifestyle and outdoor categories.
Moreover, BB and nd intelligent electric vehicle maker BYTON announced that the innovative in-car experience within BYTON’s first series of production vehicles will feature BlackBerry QNX technology. As part of the deal, BlackBerry will license its BlackBerry QNX technology to BYTON, including its industry-leading QNX SDP 7.0 real-time operating system and Hypervisor 2.0 software.