BlackBerry Ltd. says it expects its fourth-quarter and full-year revenue for its cybersecurity business to be lower than expected as some large deals that were expected to close in the quarter were not completed in time.
BlackBerry executive chairman and chief executive John Chen says “macro” challenges were a key factor for the company’s cybersecurity business unit, with elongated sales cycles in government causing some large deals to slip into later quarters.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, also said it expects to take a one-time, non-cash charge of up to US$440 million in its fourth quarter related to its Spark security business.
In a preliminary look at its results for the quarter ended Feb. 28, BlackBerry says it expects total revenue of about US$151 million. Revenue from its internet of things (IoT) business is expected to be about US$53 million, while cybersecurity revenue is expected to be about US$88 million. Licensing and other revenue is expected to be approximately US$10 million.
For its full financial year, BlackBerry says it expects total revenue of about US$656 million with IoT revenue of about US$206 million and cybersecurity revenue of about US$418 million. Licensing and other revenue for the full year is expected to be about US$32 million.
BlackBerry is scheduled to release its full financial results on March 30 when it will also provide its outlook for the year.