BlackBerry revenue down a third in a year

BlackBerry posted its lowest quarterly revenue in more than eight years yesterday, as the Canadian smartphone maker struggled to find new sources of revenue to offset its dwindling sales of handsets.

The group posted revenues of $660 million (€605 million) in the final three months of its fiscal year, a drop of about a third compared with the same period last year and its lowest three-month sales figure since 2007.

Wall Street analysts had expected the company to report revenues of $782 million, having already downgraded their expectations in the days leading up to the company’s earnings announcement.

The company reported a small profit of $20 million, or 4 cents a share, in part because of cost-cutting but also because lower sales of its unprofitable devices actually boosted margins.

"We now have a very good handle on our margins, and our product road maps have been well received," said chief executive John Chen.

Despite the high-profile launch of two phones – the Passport and the Classic – BlackBerry sold 1.6 million handsets to consumers, about half the number it sold in the same period last year. This was due, in part, to a delayed launch of the Classic.

Since coming out of retirement at the end of 2013 to try to revive BlackBerry, Mr Chen has launched five smartphones, stopped the company burning through cash and managed to turn a small quarterly profit. Yet the company has been unable to stop haemorrhaging revenues. – Copyright The Financial Times Ltd