Yesterday I wrote an article with the title “No Earnings Call or Webcast for BlackBerry’s Q2 Results.” I’m thankful for that so I didn’t have to rush to drink my coffee this morning. But fear not, for we do have the results for you.
There was speculation that BlackBerry could post nearly $1 billion in losses for the second quarter. Well, that number was only a couple million off. Things seemed pretty bleak for BlackBerry when it reported its first quarter earnings at the end of June.
That was sort of expected. BlackBerry really did start from scratch redesigning its devices and OS. However, as the months went on, we saw BlackBerry losing a couple of large corporate accounts that was followed by a great number of layoffs.
Normally BlackBerry has a webcast to report its quarterly earnings. Today we had to wait for the information to be released. Unfortunately for the Canadian corporation, it continues to look bleak. Earning for Q2 2014 were less than half of what was reported for Q2 2013.
BlackBerry’s earnings were $1.6 billion. This is down from $2.9 billion just one year ago. The company reported an adjusted loss of $248 million, which works out to $0.47 per share diluted. Some of the numbers are a little weird. BlackBerry reported selling 5.9 million smartphones to end users this quarter. However, it only recorded revenue on 3.7 million and most of those were pre-OS 10 devices.
The reported total generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) loss from continuing operations was $965. This fell right in the middle of the range that BlackBerry expected. Last week it reported a possible loss of anywhere between $950 and $995 million. The lower number was basically due to quite a substantial write down which was mostly due to the many unsold Z10s still on hand.
BlackBerry CEO, Heins said, “We are very disappointed with our operational and financial results this quarter and have announced a series of major changes to address the competitive hardware environment and our cost structure.”
The BlackBerry Z10 is being replaced with the Z30 which boasts a larger display. The Z30 will take over as the company’s flagship device. BlackBerry is still hoping to reposition the Z10 as an entry level device. Possibly dropping the price will make the smartphone more appealing.
Heins also mentioned in a prepared statement that BlackBerry still had a strong enterprise presence. He also confirmed that there is roughly $2.6 billion in cash. As I mentioned yesterday, these are actually the factors that makes the company a good acquisition for a group of investors led by Fairfax Financial.
Edited by
Rachel Ramsey 
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