BlackBerry Suffers Fallout Of Global Chip Shortage As It Misses On Q4 Earnings

BlackBerry Ltd BB braved challenges such as global chip shortage and improved the sales of its QNX car software but still missed Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue.

What Happened: The Canadian company’s Q4 earnings per share fell 66.67% year-over-year to $0.03, while revenue came in at $215 million, a fall of 26.1%, missing analysts estimate of $245.1 million.

BlackBerry’s QNX car software, which is used by likes of Volkswagen AG VWAGY and Ford Motor Company F, is facing demand pressures due to the slow recovery in the U.S. auto industry and a global shortage of semiconductors.

“This has been an exceptional year to navigate, however we are pleased with QNX’s continued recovery, despite new challenges from the global chip shortage,” said John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry, as per Reuters.

BlackBerry shares tumbled nearly 8% in the after-hours trading on Tuesday.

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Why It Matters: BlackBerry executives attributed the lowered revenues to limited patent-licensing and said the company was trying to sell some patents to an unnamed North American party.

The patents are related to mobile-devices messaging and wireless networking, according to Chen.

Blackberry limited licensing activities in the quarter “due to the negotiations and because of accounting rules,” as per Chen.

Earlier in the year, BlackBerry sold 90 patents linked to its smartphone technology to China’s Huawei, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records cited by Canadian media. BlackBerry has 38,000 patents in its library. 

BlackBerry is one of the so-called meme stocks which were associated with a short squeeze carried out by members of the Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets. Others include GameStop Corporation GME, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc AMC, and Nokia Oyj NOK. 

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Price Action: BlackBerry shares fell 8.14% in the after-hours session on Tuesday to $8.58 after closing almost 1.5% higher at $9.34 in the regular session.

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