[gigimia11]

Personal thoughts on the new direction BB is taking with their cybersecurity software and autonomous driving. Where do you predict the company/shares will be in 10 years??

 

[bgc_fan]

They've been on this direction ever since they got out of building phones 4 years ago. It's not particularly new. The space for embedded OS for cars is pretty niche and they aren't a major player. Their OS based on QNX is pretty robust and from a technical standpoint, is tailor-made. However, it's a pretty competitive field. They'll probably be around, but I doubt they'll rise to the same heights that they had in the Blackberry heyday.

 

[m3s]

Blackberry bought QNX like a decade ago and have little to show. Nowadays everyone wants Apple Carplay or Android Auto.. so QNX is basically a car OS for climate control

TSLA is doing all kinds of innovative things with cars and shows the kinds of innovative things QNX could have thought of.. but didn't. Same for AI

Cybersecurity has lots of potential imo but governments are preventing true security.. plus you need to make your own components or else they all have backdoors anyways

 

[james4beach]

Blackberry (formerly RIM) is soaring in recent days due to an Amazon partnership called IVY

I have some exposure to BB because I hold XIT for Canadian tech

 

[afulldeck]

I have some exposure to BB because I hold XIT for Canadian tech

Oh I was wondering who the other XIT holder was...😀

 

[agent99]

Blackberry bought QNX like a decade ago and have little to show. Nowadays everyone wants Apple Carplay or Android Auto.. so QNX is basically a car OS for climate control

Apple Carplay and Android Auto are fine if all you want to do is play tunes

 

[Ponderling]

interesting to hear of selling patents to hauwei.

 

[dotnet_nerd]

Apple Carplay and Android Auto are fine if all you want to do is play tunes

It's far more than that. It's like saying "an iPhone is great if all you want to do is play tunes"

Carplay/Android Auto feature apps on your car's navigation screen.

The best is Waze. You get real-time traffic guidance, actual traffic speeds, radar traps, accident reports and AI that will provide you the best alternate routes.

They provide a hands-free, legal way to get the most out of your iOS/Android phone.

 

[agent99]

iPhones or Androids themselves do of course do more than play tunes without need for Carplay/Android Auto. I looked up what Android Auto adds: android auto features - Bing . Or Android Auto: What It Is and How to Use It (lifewire.com) . Not much really if car already has many of the features built in.

As a dotnet_nerd, I am sure you have a data plan. Not all of us do. Maybe you can advise if Android Auto can provide navigation using pre-downloaded maps if it does not have a data connection? If so, it would save us from updating mapping on our Subaru when our 3yr map updates end. I have used downloaded Google maps on the phone itself on our older cars.

 

[MrMatt]

iPhones or Androids themselves do of course do more than play tunes without need for Carplay/Android Auto. I looked up what Android Auto adds: android auto features - Bing . Or Android Auto: What It Is and How to Use It (lifewire.com) . Not much really if car already has many of the features built in.

As a dotnet_nerd, I am sure you have a data plan. Not all of us do. Maybe you can advise if Android Auto can provide navigation using pre-downloaded maps if it does not have a data connection? If so, it would save us from updating mapping on our Subaru when our 3yr map updates end. I have used downloaded Google maps on the phone itself on our older cars.

You can download and save maps. I do it all the time.

You should test if navigation works, I assume the voice recognition doesn't.
Personally I love Android Auto, I won't buy a car without it.

 

[agent99]

Anyone watched BB lately? Stock has almost doubled in price since end of December. Seems to be a combination of deal with Amazon, settlement of legal issues with Facebook and willingness to sell off some of their telecom patents.

I took my profits on RIM/BB a long time ago, but kept a small amount. I won't get rich on it!

By the way, my wife and I both own Blackberry Playbooks. We use them every day as book readers. They still work well, but if software support ends, we may have to move on one of these days.

 

[doctrine]

BB is undergoing some professional pump and dump. There is enough bits and pieces around the company to make it look good, but really we are talking about a company struggling to transition and that ultimately has been seeing revenue slumps here.

But if you take a valuation metric applied to nosebleed technology companies and apply it to Blackberry, you can pretty much come up with any number you would like. 10 times revenue? How about 20 times revenue? 50 times revenue! <rocket emoji>

 

[james4beach]

BB is undergoing some professional pump and dump. There is enough bits and pieces around the company to make it look good, but really we are talking about a company struggling to transition and that ultimately has been seeing revenue slumps here.

But if you take a valuation metric applied to nosebleed technology companies and apply it to Blackberry, you can pretty much come up with any number you would like. 10 times revenue? How about 20 times revenue? 50 times revenue! <rocket emoji>

I don't think it's specific to BB...

BB seems to be getting a boost along with many stocks that have negative earnings. I know that sounds stupid but I'm not joking. There seems to be a theme these days of stocks with no earnings rallying the most.

My guess is that it's a stimulus-driven speculative mania sweeping the market. Stocks with net losses (like BB, FCEL, PLUG, BLDP) are easier to speculate on because their valuations can't be "grounded", and are therefore easier to push up to any arbitrary level. The valuations don't have to be justified.

All that's needed is a story and it's off to the races. The same thing is happening with other highly distressed Canadian companies like Sherritt and pot stocks in HMMJ.

If central bank stimulus continues, we might get a lot more of this. The most speculative stocks rallying the most, perhaps? What a great portfolio that would be ... BB, Sherritt, HMMJ, BLDP

 

[Gator13]

BlackBerry settled their patent dispute with Facebook.

 

[MrMatt]

Blackberry is doing a lot of good and interesting things.
I think it's just nostalgia that anyone even pays attention.

It's a lottery ticket, that likely won't pay off.
Sure they could get a bunch of big deals, but unfortunately their best days are over.

 

[agent99]

BlackBerry settled their patent dispute with Facebook.

As well as several other positives that I mentioned in post #11 above.

The company is now primarily a software and services tech company and had significant growth in this area in 2020. Projections for Q1/Q2 2021 were not very good due apparently to effect of Covid on car production (Where their QNX finds most of it's applications). The Facebook and Amazon settlement/partnerships seem to have spiked investor interest. That and short sellers may have caused spike?

This is now more like a startup tech company. Those with negative comments above should rather compare with similar sized tech companies who don't have the store of patents that BB has.

This is a recent review that covers most bases: BB Stock: BlackBerry Squeezes the Shorts - CNA Finance

By the way, I wouldn't buy more BB myself (too speculative for me). But I will be interested to watch how they do as EVs, cloud monitoring and self driving become more commonplace.

 

[MrBlackhill]

As @gigimia11 said, Blackberry became a cyber security & autonomous vehicle company and that industry is hot. And when you have a partnership with Amazon, it helps. See CJT.TO.

Now that everybody knows about the failure of Blackberry and are not tempted to invest back into it, it makes it a perfect contrarian investment. Management certainly doesn't want to be another failure story. And they are good at tech and innovation, but they've made the wrong bets in the past and it doesn't mean they'll make the wrong bets this time.

I'd totally be willing to invest in Blackberry, but at the moment I'd prefer holding it through a thematic ETF.

 

[MrMatt]

This is now more like a startup tech company. Those with negative comments above should rater compare with similar sized tech companies who don't have the store of patents that BB has.

Investing in tech startups is a gamble. Most tech startups aren't as big as BB.

 

[doctrine]

This is now more like a startup tech company. Those with negative comments above should rather compare with similar sized tech companies who don't have the store of patents that BB has.

This is a recent review that covers most bases: BB Stock: BlackBerry Squeezes the Shorts - CNA Finance

By the way, I wouldn't buy more BB myself (too speculative for me). But I will be interested to watch how they do as EVs, cloud monitoring and self driving become more commonplace.

This is typical of expensive tech stocks. Blackberry is being purchased on speculation of future growth. While stocks are forward looking and this is fine, it is fascinating to see how little substance is required these days to shoot companies to the moon. It is totally typical of the 2000 era. Stocks get priced at levels at which there is very little hope of future return even if everything works out, which it will inevitably not for everyone in every area.

Blackberry has demonstrated zero material growth in the overall size of the company in years - the company continues to shrink or at best hang on while still trading at expensive 10 times revenue levels. There is no guarantee they will see any returns on capital in EVs, cloud monitoring, or self driving - all hyper competitive industries with hundreds of billions of new capital being employed as we speak. Those pumping the company simply have to say some buzzwords and the stock moves up. All Blackberry is missing is bitcoin investments topped off by some cannabis, mushrooms, and COVID rapid tests.

There will be significant capital destruction in renewables as well as clean tech and electric cars and again this is typical of hot markets - growth of capital employed does not equal return on capital or even return of capital, but unfortunately none of that matters now and to the moon we go.

 

[peterk]

I sold my few little shares for $4.something back in April - So I expect this to keep rising indefinitely - probably to $100.