BlackBerry Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Fiscal Year 2021 Results

Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2021:

• Total company non-GAAP revenue of $215 million; total company GAAP revenue of $210 million.

• During the quarter BlackBerry entered into an exclusive negotiation with a North American entity for the potential sale of part of the patent portfolio relating primarily to mobile devices, messaging and wireless networking. The Company has limited its patent monetization activities due to the ongoing negotiations. If the Company had not been in negotiations during the quarter, we believe that Licensing revenue would have been higher.

• Non-GAAP earnings per basic and diluted share of $0.03; GAAP loss per basic and diluted share of $0.56.

• GAAP loss per share was largely driven by a non-cash accounting adjustment on the convertible debentures, resulting from market conditions. This adjustment equates to approximately $0.46 of GAAP loss per share.

• Net cash generated from operating activities of $51 million.

Fiscal Year 2021:

• Total company non-GAAP revenue of $919 million; total company GAAP revenue of $893 million.

• Non-GAAP earnings per basic and diluted share of $0.18; GAAP loss per basic and diluted share of $1.97.

• Net cash generated from operating activities of $82 million.

WATERLOO, Ontario, March 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — BlackBerry Limited (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) today reported financial results for the three months ended February 28, 2021 (all figures in U.S. dollars and U.S. GAAP, except where otherwise indicated).

« 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. QNX now has design wins with 23 of the world’s top 25 electric vehicle OEMs and remains on course to return to a normal revenue run rate by mid-fiscal 2022. BlackBerry IVY also made encouraging progress, with positive engagement from a number of leading automakers and the launch of our BlackBerry IVY Innovation Fund. » said John Chen, Executive Chairman & CEO, BlackBerry. « We are seeing tangible signs that our efforts and improvements in go-to-market are starting to pay off and have a positive impact. This quarter we generated strong sequential billings growth for our Software and Services business, including significant improvements for both Spark and QNX. Total billings are back to pre-pandemic levels. »

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Fourth Quarter Fiscal 2021 Financial Highlights

• Total company non-GAAP revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 was $215 million. Total company GAAP revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 was $210 million.

• Software and Services non-GAAP revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 was $165 million. Software and Services GAAP revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 was $160 million.

• Licensing and Other GAAP and non-GAAP revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 was $50 million.

• Non-GAAP gross margin was 73% and GAAP gross margin was 72%.

• Non-GAAP operating earnings were $18 million. GAAP operating loss was $313 million, primarily due to fair value adjustments to long-term debt, as a result of market conditions.

• Non-GAAP earnings per share was $0.03 (basic and diluted). GAAP net loss per share was $0.56 (basic and diluted).

• Total cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments were $804 million.

• Net cash generated from operating activities was $51 million.

Business Highlights & Strategic Announcements

• BlackBerry launches BlackBerry IVY Innovation Fund to drive innovation and new products using BlackBerry IVY™.

• BlackBerry introduces BlackBerry® Alert Next-Gen Critical Event Management for the commercial sector.

• BlackBerry QNX has design wins with 23 of the world’s top 25 Electric Vehicle OEMs, who together have 68% of the EV market. This has increased from 19 of the top 25 last quarter.

• BlackBerry expands its partnership with Baidu to power next generation autonomous driving technology.

• Scania chooses BlackBerry QNX as the safety critical operating system and hypervisor in its next generation of heavy goods vehicles.

• Sony announces at CES that its Vision-S car will use BlackBerry® QNX® technology.

• BlackBerry and IBM integrate BlackBerry® Protect, BlackBerry® Optics and IBM QRadar.

• BlackBerry QNX Black Channel Communications to be used in Motional’s driverless platform.

• BlackBerry QNX working with Android Open Source Project (AOSP) for virtualization in automotive digital cockpits.

• BlackBerry SecuSUITE® for Government is now used by 18 governments.

• BlackBerry® Jarvis™ named ‘Best in Breed’ tool to protect mission critical software supply chains.

• BlackBerry 2021 annual threat report uncovers breadth of COVID-19 exploitation.

• BlackBerry named a leader in 2021 IDC marketscape UEM report.

Outlook
BlackBerry will provide fiscal year 2022 outlook in connection with the quarterly earnings announcement on its earnings conference call. The earnings call transcript will be made available on our website and on SEDAR.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The tables at the end of this press release include a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures used by the company to comparable U.S. GAAP measures and an explanation of why the company uses them.

Conference Call and Webcast
A conference call and live webcast will be held today beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET, which can be accessed by dialing +1 (877) 682-6267 or by logging on at BlackBerry.com/Investors.
A replay of the conference call will also be available at approximately 8:30 p.m. ET by dialing +1 (800) 585-8367 and entering Conference ID #4884474 and at the link above.

About BlackBerry
BlackBerry (NYSE: BB; TSX: BB) provides intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world. The company secures more than 500M endpoints including more than 175M cars on the road today. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, the company leverages AI and machine learning to deliver innovative solutions in the areas of cybersecurity, safety and data privacy, and is a leader in the areas of endpoint security, endpoint management, encryption, and embedded systems. BlackBerry’s vision is clear – to secure a connected future you can trust.

BlackBerry. Intelligent Security. Everywhere.
For more information, visit BlackBerry.com and follow @BlackBerry.

Investor Contact:
BlackBerry Investor Relations
+1 (519) 888-7465
investor_relations@blackberry.com

Media Contact:
BlackBerry Media Relations
+1 (519) 597-7273
mediarelations@blackberry.com

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of certain securities laws, including under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws, including statements regarding BlackBerry’s plans, strategies and objectives including its expectations with respect to BlackBerry QNX and BlackBerry IVY and increasing and enhancing its product and service offerings.

The words « expect », « anticipate », « estimate », « may », « will », « should », « could », « intend », « believe », « target », « plan » and similar expressions are intended to identify these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by BlackBerry in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that BlackBerry believes are appropriate in the circumstances, including but not limited to, BlackBerry’s expectations regarding its business, strategy, opportunities and prospects, the launch of new products and services, general economic conditions particularly in light of COVID-19, competition, and BlackBerry’s expectations regarding its financial performance. Many factors could cause BlackBerry’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, risks related to the following factors: BlackBerry’s ability to enhance, develop, introduce or monetize products and services for the enterprise market in a timely manner with competitive pricing, features and performance; BlackBerry’s ability to maintain or expand its customer base for its software and services offerings to grow revenue or achieve sustained profitability; the intense competition faced by BlackBerry; the occurrence or perception of a breach of BlackBerry’s network cybersecurity measures, or an inappropriate disclosure of confidential or personal information; the failure or perceived failure of BlackBerry’s solutions to detect or prevent security vulnerabilities; the impact of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic; BlackBerry’s continuing ability to attract new personnel, retain existing key personnel and manage its staffing effectively; BlackBerry’s dependence on its relationships with resellers and channel partners; litigation against BlackBerry; network disruptions or other business interruptions; BlackBerry’s ability to foster an ecosystem of third-party application developers; BlackBerry’s products and services being dependent upon interoperability with rapidly changing systems provided by third parties; BlackBerry’s ability to obtain rights to use third-party software and its use of open source software; failure to protect BlackBerry’s intellectual property and to earn expected revenues from intellectual property rights; BlackBerry being found to have infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the substantial asset risk faced by BlackBerry, including the potential for charges related to its long-lived assets and goodwill; BlackBerry’s indebtedness; tax provision changes, the adoption of new tax legislation or exposure to additional tax liabilities; the use and management of user data and personal information; government regulations applicable to BlackBerry’s products and services, including products containing encryption capabilities; the failure of BlackBerry’s suppliers, subcontractors, channel partners and representatives to use acceptable ethical business practices or comply with applicable laws; regulations regarding health and safety, hazardous materials usage and conflict minerals; acquisitions, divestitures and other business initiatives; foreign operations, including fluctuations in foreign currencies; the fluctuation of BlackBerry’s quarterly revenue and operating results; the volatility of the market price of BlackBerry’s common shares; adverse economic, geopolitical and environmental conditions.

These risk factors and others relating to BlackBerry are discussed in greater detail in BlackBerry’s Annual Report on Form 10-K and the « Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements » section of BlackBerry’s MD&A (copies of which filings may be obtained at www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov). All of these factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on BlackBerry’s forward-looking statements. Any statements that are forward-looking statements are intended to enable BlackBerry’s shareholders to view the anticipated performance and prospects of BlackBerry from management’s perspective at the time such statements are made, and they are subject to the risks that are inherent in all forward-looking statements, as described above, as well as difficulties in forecasting BlackBerry’s financial results and performance for future periods, particularly over longer periods, given changes in technology and BlackBerry’s business strategy, evolving industry standards, intense competition and short product life cycles that characterize the industries in which BlackBerry operates. BlackBerry has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures with the Nearest Comparable U.S. GAAP Measures

In the Company’s internal reports, management evaluates the performance of the Company’s business on a non-GAAP basis by excluding the impact of certain items below from the Company’s U.S. GAAP financial results. The Company believes that these non-GAAP measures provide readers of the Company’s financial statements with a consistent basis for comparison across accounting periods and is useful in helping readers understand the Company’s operating results and underlying operational trends.

Readers are cautioned that adjusted revenue, adjusted Software and Services revenue, adjusted gross margin, adjusted gross margin percentage, adjusted operating expense, adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income margin percentage, adjusted EBITDA margin percentage, adjusted net income (loss), adjusted income (loss) per share, adjusted research and development expense, adjusted selling, marketing and administrative expense and adjusted amortization expense and similar measures do not have any standardized meaning prescribed by U.S. GAAP and are therefore unlikely to be comparable to similarly titled measures reported by other companies. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in the context of the U.S. GAAP results.

Reconciliation of non-GAAP based measures with most directly comparable U.S. GAAP based measures for the three months ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020

A reconciliation of the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures for the three months ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 to adjusted financial measures is reflected in the tables below:

Reconciliation of operating expense for the three months ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 to adjusted operating expense is reflected in the tables below:

February 28, 2021

February 29, 2020

Operating expense

$

465

$

253

Restructuring charges

—

1

Stock compensation expense

16

15

…Debenture fair value adjustment

258

5

Software deferred commission expense acquired

(3)

(3)

Acquired intangibles amortization

32

35

Business acquisition and integration costs

—

1

Goodwill impairment charge

—

22

LLA impairment charge

22

5

Adjusted operating expense

$

140

$

172

Reconciliation of U.S. GAAP net loss and U.S. GAAP basic loss per share for the three months ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 to adjusted net income and adjusted basic earnings per share is reflected in the tables below:

Reconciliation of U.S. GAAP Software and Services revenue for the three months ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 to adjusted Software and Services revenue is reflected in the tables below:

Reconciliation of U.S. GAAP research and development, selling, marketing and administration, and amortization expense for the three months ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 to adjusted research and development, selling, marketing and administration, and amortization expense is reflected in the tables below:

Adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income margin percentage and adjusted EBITDA margin percentage for the three months ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 are reflected in the table below.

Reconciliation of non-GAAP based measures with most directly comparable U.S. GAAP based measures for the years ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020

A reconciliation of the most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures for the years ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 to adjusted financial measures is reflected in the tables below:

Reconciliation of U.S. GAAP net loss and U.S. GAAP basic loss per share for the years ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 to the adjusted net income and basic earnings per share is reflected in the tables below:

Reconciliation of U.S. GAAP Software and Services revenue for the years ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 to adjusted Software and Services revenue is reflected in the tables below:

Reconciliation of U.S. GAAP research and development, selling, marketing and administration, and amortization expense for the years ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 to adjusted research and development, selling, marketing and administration, and amortization expense is reflected in the tables below:

Adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted operating income margin percentage and adjusted EBITDA margin percentage for the years ended February 28, 2021 and February 29, 2020 are reflected in the table below.

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SOURCE BlackBerry Limited