BlackBerry posts 12 percent rise in third quarter revenue

BlackBerry fell into a bit of a rough patch amid the surge in popularity of Android and iOS smartphones. However, it looks like the company may be have finally turned itself around.

The Canadian tech giant reported a 12 percent rise in revenue in the last quarter, with CEO John Chen citing impressive sales of its Priv smartphone.

BlackBerry posted global revenue of $548 million in the third quarter ended on November 28, up 11.8 percent compared to the previous quarter.

It is the first time in two years that BlackBerry has reported an increase in revenue over two consecutive quarters.

Total cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments was $2.71 billion as of November 28, 2015. This reflects $15 million of positive free cash flow, $636 million used in acquisition costs for AtHoc and Good Technology and $10 million used to repurchase 1.6 million shares.

“I am pleased with our continued progress on BlackBerry’s strategic priorities, leading to 14 percent sequential growth in total revenue for Q3. We delivered accelerating growth in enterprise software and higher revenue across all of our areas of focus,” said Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Chen.

“Our new PRIV device has been well received since its launch in November, and we are expanding distribution to additional carriers around the world in the next several quarters.

“BlackBerry has a solid financial foundation, and we are executing well. To sustain our current direction, we are stepping up investments to drive continued software growth and the additional PRIV launches. I anticipate this will result in sequential revenue growth in our software, hardware and messaging businesses in Q4.”