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BlackBerry Ltd reported a smaller quarterly loss on Friday and flashed encouraging signals about its hard-pressed smartphone business as well as its software and services sales, spurring a 7 per cent jump in its shares.
The Canadian company reported a net loss of $207 million, or 39 cents per share, for its second quarter ended August 30. That compared with a year-earlier loss of $965 million, or $1.84 per share. Revenue was $916 million, versus $1.57 billion a year earlier. BlackBerry shares were up 7.6 per cent at C$11.70 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and up 7.4 per cent at $10.51 on Nasdaq.
John Chen, who became BlackBerry's chief executive officer in November, said the company has already taken 200,000 orders for its new squared-screened Passport smartphone, which went on sale on Wednesday and sold out on Amazon.com within six hours.
