Once upon a time, it was at the zenith of the smartphone market with a 90% share. A few corporate shake-ups and a change in name now leave the company standing on wafer thin ice, with its future in jeopardy. Yes, we are talking about the dramatic story of BlackBerry, whose devices find themselves in every manager’s pocket since the 90s and now finds itself in an extended crisis. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel seems to be fading.
After falling out with their dynamic duo of CEOs, the company has turned to German-Canadian Thorsten Heins to guide the company out of its slump. The BlackBerry Z10, which was all set to compete with the flagship phones of Apple and Samsung in the competitive smartphone market, didn’t set out on the right track with its abysmal debut. The repeated howling of fans who expected more and several investors taking the stock on a roller coaster ride hasn’t stopped one investor from maintaining his bullish stance on the issue.
Managing partner at IronFire Capital, Eric Jackson, claimed that BlackBerry possessed the qualities of a huge battleground stock. He further added that most people are bearish on the stock and are of the opinion that the company would go out of business in the next six months. Jackson, who has taken sides opposite to what most analysts are saying, claims investors have failed to look at the at the long term potential that the company has to offer. The stock price could be very different in the next few quarters, he said. In essence, he meant that it is difficult to simply write off BlackBerry based on their last set of earnings reports and quoting Jackson’s words, “They will still surprise”.
There are traders who agree that taking on Apple, Android and even Windows Phone vendors is a tough ask given the competitive landscape. Jackson, however, is of the opinion that BlackBerry’s latest efforts is bound to work given that the company only needs 25% of existing customers to purchase these new phones in order to post a profit. He further added that BlackBerry has another big weapon in its arsenal. He believes that the Q10 device with its QWERTY keyboard could prove to be this weapon. Whether Jackson’s hypothesis plays out is an answer only time can tell.
