BlackBerry shifts to self-driving cars

Article Excerpt

BLACKBERRY LTD. $12 (Toronto symbol BB; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 540.6 million; Market cap: $6.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 7.6; No dividends paid; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative; www.blackberry.com) quit developing smartphones in 2016 as part of a plan to focus on its more promising security software business. It is especially interested in producing security software for mobile phones and self-driving cars. As part of that strategy, the company plans to invest $310.5 million in its QNX software business over the next 10 years. QNX currently powers the information/entertainment systems of 120 million cars made by Toyota, Audi, Jaguar and Ford. The Canadian federal government will cover $40 million of those costs. BlackBerry is a hold. hold…