Earnings

BlackBerry is financially under control: CEO John Chen

Chen: Financially under control, stabilizing revenue
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Chen: Financially under control, stabilizing revenue

BlackBerry CEO John Chen said Friday he's happy with his company's performance now that it has posted a surprise second-straight quarterly profit.

After massive cost-cutting, the Canadian-based software company on Friday posted fourth quarter net profit of $28 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $148 million, or 28 cents a share. Excluding one-time items, quarterly profit was $20 million, or 4 cents a share. Analysts, on average, looked for a loss of 4 cents a share.

Still, revenue came in below analysts' expectations. It slid to $660 million from $793 million, well below estimates of $786.4 million.


"We have now shown that we are financially under control," Chen said on CNBC's "Squawk Alley." "Now I need to stabilize the revenue and then I am going to start growing that."

Read MoreBlackBerry posts earnings of 4 cents a share vs. 4 cent loss expected

The market reacted positively to the news and BlackBerry shares were up more than 1.6 percent Friday afternoon.

John Chen, chief executive officer of BlackBerry.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Chen highlighted the company's device management platform, Bes12, as a positive spot for growth. He said profits for the BlackBerry Classic and the Passport models will show up in the next quarter's earnings.

Chen acknowledges the company's $1.4 billion in debt. But he said he now needs to focus on stabilizing revenue and investing in growth.

"I'm not too hung up on short-term stock prices and valuation," he said. "Once we show that we have good traction in the market in terms of revenue and growth, I think the market will reward it."

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—Reuters contributed to this story.