BlackBerry reported a massive $4.4 billion loss in the third quarter and 56 percent drop in revenue in its first results under new Chairman and interim Chief Executive John Chen.
BlackBerry also announced Friday it is entering in to a five-year partnership with Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles products in vast factories in China. Foxconn will jointly develop and manufacture certain new BlackBerry devices and manage the inventory of them.
“The most immediate challenge for the company is how to transition the devices operations to a more profitable business model,” Chen said in a statement.
Its shares tumbled more than 7 percent in premarket trading.
BlackBerry reported revenue of $1.2 billion, down from $1.57 billion in the same quarter last year.
Chen has said the company “is very much alive” but is putting more emphasis on Blackberry’s software business than its hardware business.
BlackBerry said it sold just 1.9 million smartphones in the quarter compared to 3.7 million in the previous quarter and said most of them were old BlackBerry 7 devices. This year’s launch of BlackBerry 10, its revamped operating system, and fancier devices — the touchscreen Z10 and Q10 for keyboard loyalists — was supposed to rejuvenate the brand and lure customers. But the much-delayed phones failed to turn the company around and have led to a billion dollar loss last quarter and a multibillion loss in the third quarter.