BlackBerry continued to struggle during the company’s fiscal fourth quarter, experiencing a huge drop in revenue and a $423 million net loss.
Revenue for the fourth quarter of BlackBerry’s fiscal 2014, which ended March 1, was approximately US$976 million, down 64 percent from $2.7 billion in the same quarter in 2013.
The company’s $423 million net loss for the period compares to a $98 million profit for the year-earlier period.
BlackBerry’s main problem continues to be that it doesn’t sell enough phones. The company sold approximately 3.4 million BlackBerry smartphones to end users last quarter, including about 1.1 million phones running the BlackBerry 10 OS. A year earlier, the company said it sold 6 million smartphones.
In addition, the company said it recognized hardware revenue on only 1.3 million BlackBerry smartphones for its fourth fiscal quarter this year, compared to approximately 1.9 million BlackBerry smartphones in the prior quarter.
Still, new CEO John Chen said he is pleased with the progress the company made during the quarter against the strategy laid out three months ago. BlackBerry has reached a cost reduction target one quarter ahead of schedule, Chen said in a statement.
BlackBerry had $2.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short- and long-term investments at the end of its fourth quarter, compared to $3.2 billion at the end of the previous three month period, it said.