BlackBerry Is in The Black
-By Sam B | [email protected]
Blackberry, a global software company that stopped making phones on September 28, 2016, reported Q1 2017 results. Revenue was $235 million compared to $286 million last quarter and $400 million last year. The average analyst estimate was for revenue of $266 million.
The bulk of the revenue change relates to two categories, blackberry phones and accompanying system access fee revenue drop. The SAF segment includes service access fees charged to subscribers using the company’s legacy BlackBerry 7 and prior BlackBerry operating systems. Revenue rose $18 million in the other categories, which represent its main operations. 
GAAP gross margin was 64% as the company improved its profitability in its software segment. Non-GAAP operating income was $14 million. GAAP net income was $671 million reflecting a one-time gain from a legal settlement with Qualcomm discussed here.
Blackberry has indicated that it will use some of the cash to buyback stock and can repurchase up to 31 million shares. John Chen, The CEO of blackberry, has indicated that he wants to raise revenue in the company's software segment by over 13% said he wants to increase that software number faster than 13 per cent a year.
In early morning trade, the stock is down a little over 10%, but is still up over 40% on the year.