Business

BlackBerry surprises Wall Street with profit, Z10 sales

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BlackBerry isn’t dead — yet.

The struggling smartphone maker surprised Wall Street yesterday by reporting a profit in the latest quarter and shipping more of its new BlackBerry Z10s than most analysts had expected.

The company, formerly known as Research in Motion, has struggled to compete with Apple and Samsung as its once-iconic phone has lost its coolness factor.

Much is riding on its latest operating system, BlackBerry 10, and whether devices that run on it, including the Z10, catch on with consumers.

The results yesterday raised hopes that the company is starting to turn a corner, sending the shares up as much as 4 percent before losing momentum later in the day. The stock closed down 12 cents, at $14.45.

BlackBerry posted profit of $98 million, or 19 cents a share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with a loss of $125 million, or 24 cents, a year ago.

Revenue fell slightly to $2.68 billion, from $2.73 billion a year ago.

The company shipped a million units of its Z10, which went on sale overseas last quarter and hit the US only last week. Across all models, BlackBerry shipped 7 million phones with an average selling price of $257, up from about $230 in the prior quarter.

“The margin on the new phone was pretty good,” said analyst Colin Gillis of BGC Partners.

The Street expected BlackBerry to see some initial success with its new phone in part because the company markets to a large, existing customer base.

The quarter also highlighted the challenges for BlackBerry. It finished the quarter with 76 million subscribers — a sharp drop of 3 million users.

Also yesterday, BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis said he was stepping down from the board May 1. Lazaridis is exiting the company after his former co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, left last year, handing the reins to Thorsten Heins.