Despite many promises and flashy communications, this glory of mobile telephony's past has never managed to reinvent itself. Fortunately, its patent portfolio was skillfully monetized, as was the case with Nokia.

At the time, it was precisely the discount on the value of its intangible assets that attracted the talented Fairfax investors to BlackBerry's capital. Alas, reinvested in various acquisitions to transform the company into a software leader, the proceeds of these monetizations remain disappointing for the time being.

Neither the QNX segment nor the cybersecurity business is yet capable of turning a profit. Nor has there been any miraculous turnaround in revenue growth, although there has been a noticeable improvement of late.

BlackBerry anticipates consolidated sales of around $830 million this year, the first upturn in three years. If nothing else, shareholders will have to console themselves with this.

For the first nine months of the fiscal year, the company reduced its cash-burn compared with the previous year, but remains - very slightly - in the red. Another expected development, announced earlier in 2023, is that John Giamatteo, head of the company's cybersecurity business, will replace John Chen as CEO.

After ten years at the helm of BlackBerry, the Hong Kong-born businessman arrived on the back of Sybase's turnaround, but failed to achieve his goal of positioning the Canadian company as a world leader in cybersecurity.

It is to be hoped that Giamatteo will depart from his predecessor's frankly tendentious communication style. The latest example is the sale of intellectual property, presented in the headlines as a $900 million deal, when it is almost certain that BlackBerry will pocket considerably less than this amount.