BlackBerry maker RIM's quarterly results beat expectations
Sep 28, 2012 (Menafn - Los Angeles Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --BlackBerry is showing signs of life, but don't call it a comeback yet.
Parent company Research in Motion Ltd., which had been slipping into irrelevancy in an Apple- and Android-dominated U.S. mobile device market, reported better-than-expected quarterly results Thursday.
But RIM still had sharp declines in key areas and warned that it expected "continued pressure" on operating results for the rest of the year.
For the three months that ended Sept. 1, the Canadian smartphone maker reported revenue of 2.9 billion, down 31% from 4.2 billion in the same quarter last year.
It had a loss of 235 million, or 45 cents a share, compared with a profit of 329 million, or 63 cents, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, the company's loss for the quarter was 142 million, or 27 cents a share.
That was better than the 46-cents-a-share adjusted loss that Wall Street had expected; analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had also expected RIM to post revenue of 2.5 billion.
The company reported its fiscal second-quarter results after the markets closed. During regular trading, shares rose 14 cents, or 2%, to 7.14. They were up as much as 1.33, or 18.6%, after hours.
RIM also reported that its subscriber base increased to about 80 million users worldwide and that its cash reserves grew to 2.3 billion, up about 100 million from the previous quarter.
"Despite the significant changes we are implementing across the organization, our second-quarter results demonstrate that RIM is progressing on its financial and operational commitments during this major transition," Thorsten Heins, chief executive of RIM, said in a statement.
"We understand that we have much more work to do, but we are making the organizational changes to drive improvements across the company," he said.
RIM said results for the rest of its fiscal year would be affected by the increasingly competitive environment, lower handset volumes and higher marketing expenses associated with the launch of the BlackBerry 10 operating system.
BlackBerry 10 has been delayed numerous times; the company now says it won't be released until the first quarter of 2013.
The latest delay means BlackBerry 10 phones will have to play catch-up to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Phones and to devices powered by Google Inc.'s Android that are expected to be released in the next few months. The launch of Apple Inc.'s iPhone 5 this month is also expected to take more market share away from BlackBerry.
"While it is encouraging to see new management take actions to start the process of turning around the company, including changing up the management team -- the hard work remains ahead," BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said in a note to investors before RIM released its earnings. "Our opinion is that it is too soon to tell if the company can rebound."
andrea.chang@latimes.com
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