On Tue 24th Sept, Blackberry (Research in Motion), headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, announced it was going to be taken over and go private. This means delisting its shares from the stock exchanges where the shares are traded (Nasdaq and Toronto), and become a privately held stock. From reading the media it is to be bought by a consortium led by Fairfax Financial for $4.7bn (£3bn).
So while the shares are still listed on the Nasdaq and Toronto stock exchanges, I undertook some analysis into the stock
[http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/bbry]
Today about $8 a share, 12 months ago $18 a share. Over 50% decline in value.
The Market capitalisation is $4,623,089 = £2883 Million = £2.8 Billion
The annual report gives some insight too.
[http://uk.blackberry.com/company/investors/documents.html]
524,159,844 Common Shares in issue.
54.6% of BlackBerry users based outside of North America
Revenue (U.S $) March 2, 2013 = $11,073 million = £6,905 million
Revenue (U.S $) March 2, 2012 = $18,423 million = £11,489 million
A near 40% decline in revenues.
The Company’s revenues by geographic region are as follows:
6% = Canada
20.2% = USA
11.2% = UK
29.5% = Europe
19.1% = LatAm
14% = APAC
Despite increased competitive pressures in consumer segments, the Company remains a leader in enterprise mobility, with deployments in over 90% of the Fortune 500 companies
As of March 2, 2013, the Company’s research and development team consisted of approximately 6,000 full time employees. Research and development expense was approximately $1.5 billion.
As of March 2, 2013, the Company had approximately 12,700 full-time employees.
Cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet of $ 1,549 Million = £966 Million
Short-term investments $1,105 Million = £689 Million
It’s debt is tiny, it is only accounts payable.
Advertising expense, which includes media, agency and promotional expenses totalling $925 million = £576 Million.
One thing that jumps out, the very low level of debt that Blackberry carries. So despite the falling sales, and shrinking market share, the company has been able to develop new products, as it has not had the burden of loans, interest payments etc, when it has had to deal with the competition from Apple and Android. A company with fantastic technology, that is swimming against the tide of the competition.