BlackBerry’s stock took a huge 30% hit after the company posted worse than expected earnings last Friday, and executives will likely face difficult and critical questions on Tuesday at the company’s annual shareholders meeting as a result. John Goldsmith, the deputy head of equities at Montrusco Bolton, which owns more than 1.5 million shares of BlackBerry, told Reuters that he expects “people standing up and making their voices heard,” adding that last week’s results were “a quasi death knell for BlackBerry.”
The company is anticipating another operating loss in the current quarter, however chief executive Thorsten Heins believes in time, BlackBerry will succeed. He noted that “this is a year of investment,” and that the company has managed its cash carefully to give it the funds to “create the future.” Despite calls by some investors to sell parts or even the entire company, Heins said BlackBerry will “stay the course,” adding that it is “the course that management has created and it is course that the board has accepted.”
In the wake of last week’s stock crash, however, the board may have to reexamine its strategy.
“It is the board’s job to deal with this objectively, and we hope they would be objective enough to do the best thing for the shareholders,” said Don Yacktman of Yacktman Asset Management, whose firm owns more than 5.5 million BlackBerry shares.
