BlackBerry has posted a second quarter net loss of $965 million, blaming the BlackBerry Z10 for its misfortune.
Despite reporting $1.6 billion (£994 million) in quarterly revenue, the company’s $965 million (£599 million) in losses complete overshadowed any success BlackBerry had this quarter.
The huge losses are attributed to what the company calls “Z10 Inventory Charge”, which means the company is being penalised for its stock of BB10 flagship handsets that it failed to sell.
Mirroring Microsoft’s surplus of Surface RT inventory that meant the company incurred $900 million charges, the BlackBerry Z10 has failed to appeal to consumers, despite a new touchscreen focus and reinvented BlackBerry 10 OS.
It was recently announced that BlackBerry has agreed to a $4.7 billion sale to Fairfax Financial consortium, but the company has said it is still exploring other opportunities while the deal goes through.
BlackBerry has also had to cut 4,500 jobs in light of its losses, which equates to 40 per cent of its workforce.
“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. We are focused on our targeted markets, and are committed to completing our transition quickly in order to establish a more focused and efficient company.”
Despite poor Blackberry Z10 sales, the company has still recorded around 3.7 million smartphone sales this quarter, perhaps boosted by the physical QWERTY keyboard BB10 smartphones like the BlackBerry Q10 and BlackBerry Q5.
Read more – BlackBerry Fairfax sale: RIP BlackBerry, your time is still up.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
