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BlackBerry device and server company Research In Motion Ltd. reported a fourth-quarter loss on Thursday, but revenues that were significantly higher than the previous year.
The Waterloo, Ontario, company reported a loss of $12.6 million, or 16 cents per share, for the quarter ended March 1, compared with a loss of $8.6 million, or 11 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Revenues in the quarter rose to $87.5 million from $66.1 million in the same quarter the year before.
RIM recorded a $6.9 million pre-tax charge during the quarter for an ongoing dispute with NTP Inc., which accused the company for patent infringement. Last November, a jury ruled that RIM had infringed on five patents and ordered the company to pay $23 million to NTP, but RIM appealed. In March, RIM had predicted a charge of between $7 million and $8 million. RIM is expecting a final ruling on the litigation on April 15 if the two companies cant work it out for themselves, officials said, and the outcome may further affect earnings.
Excluding legal and various other costs, the loss for the quarter was about $5.7 million, or 7 cents a share.
Meanwhile, RIM is on the other end of several lawsuits against Good Technology Inc. RIM accuses its rival of misappropriation of trade secrets and copyright infringement, among other offenses. On Thursday, the California Superior Court denied RIMs request for a preliminary injunction against Good, whose GoodLink software competes against RIMs BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The court set a status conference for June 3.
RIM reported on Thursday that 10,000 companies have installed the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, up from 8,500 last year. Next week, RIM will start offering some long-awaited features for the BES including wireless synchronization, attachment viewing, attachment delete, and Java provisioning capability, said RIM chairman and co-CEO Jim Balsillie.
RIM also this month plans to announce availability of the BlackBerry 6210, a phone/e-mail device that runs on GSM/GPRS (global system for mobility/general packet radio service) networks. AT&T Wireless Services Inc. will be among several carriers who offer the device, Balsillie said.
The company announced the device at the CTIA Wireless show last month. At the same time, the company announced licensing agreements with Symbian Ltd. and Microsoft Corp. to bring push-based corporate data and e-mail capabilities to devices using the Symbian OS and Pocket PC. Balsillie said similar plans are in the works for the Palm OS, and that RIM may be showing Palm-based devices with BlackBerry capabilities at a trade show next month.
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