BlackBerry’s profits are higher than the estimates as software business steadies

BlackBerry, the Canadian smartphone maker, has made a higher profit than the analysts’ estimates for its fourth quarter. The company said that it expects strong billings at its high-margin software and services business for the full year, raising its U.S. listed shares up by 5 percent.

After the massive popularity of Apple’s iPhones and Android devices, BlackBerry kept its focus on reinventing the company that resulted in a 19 percent rise in its enterprise software and services business amounting to $108 million. In addition to that, it expects the total company software and services billings growth to be in double-digits in 2019.

Chief Executive Officer, John Chen said that their strategy was working. BlackBerry has now extended his contract and is also putting efforts in the software security deals with Jaguar Land Rover and Microsoft. According to a report, Global Equities Research’s Trip Chowdhry said, “BlackBerry’s subscription revenue is coming up good. If billings are going up that means their models are transitioning very well to a subscription model.”

Apart from the 76 percent rise of gross margins from 60.1 percent a year earlier, the company’s net loss has narrowed down to $10 million from $47 million in the previous year. The company's revenue fell 18.5 percent to $233 million.