Shares in Blackberry jumped 12% in early trading on Wall
Street after the troubled smartphone maker reported a surprise profit.
Net profit for the three months to the end of March was $23m
(£14m), compared with an $84m loss a year earlier. Revenue was down 69% at
$966m.
Cost-cutting and higher profit margins helped the company
offset the big drop in revenues.
Blackberry is trying to fight back after losing market
share.
This week, it agreed a deal to license Android applications
from Amazon's app store.
Excluding a one-off accountancy gain and restructuring
charges, the company made an adjusted loss of $60m during the quarter. Gross
profit margins were 46.7%, up from 33.9% a year ago.
'On
track'
Under new boss John Chen, the company has embarked on a
turnaround plan aimed at focusing more on its services arm, while putting a
renewed emphasis on its keyboard devices.
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"Our performance [in the quarter] demonstrates that we
are firmly on track to achieve important milestones, including our financial
objectives and delivering a strong product portfolio," said Mr Chen, who
took over the company in November last year.
"Over the past six months, we have focused on improving
efficiency in all aspects of our operations to drive cost reductions and margin
improvement. Looking forward, we are focusing on our growth plan to enable our
return to profitability."
Analysts were pleasantly surprised by the latest results.
"The numbers certainly aren't great, but they could
have been much worse," said investment research firm Morningstar's Brian
Colello.
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