Life after the smartphone? BlackBerry revenue tops estimates

• Canada’s BlackBerry Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue
• Soaring demand for electric vehicles and connected-car technologies
• Revenue from the company’s cybersecurity segment rose 6%

Canada’s BlackBerry Ltd topped Wall Street estimates for first-quarter revenue on Thursday, powered by growth in its auto products and cybersecurity services segments.

Soaring demand for electric vehicles and connected-car technologies boosted sales of BlackBerry’s auto software, used in cars made by General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota, among others.

BlackBerry said that revenue from its Internet-of-Things segment that includes its auto products grew the fastest in the reported quarter at 19 percent, with a gross margin of 84 percent.

BlackBerry’s car products help power a host of functions including advanced driver assistance systems, infotainment units and connected-car technologies that allow autos to access the internet.

Revenue from the company’s cybersecurity segment, its largest, rose 6 percent to $113 million as more businesses migrated to cloud platforms that support the pandemic-fueled trend of remote work.

Overall revenue fell 3.4 percent to $168 million for the quarter ended May 31, but topped analysts’ average estimate of $160.7 million, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net loss widened to $181 million, or 35 cents per share, from $62 million, or 11 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, BlackBerry reported a loss of 5 cents per share, in line with analyst estimates.