BlackBerry counts on cars to reverse decline in revenue

BlackBerry reported another quarter of losses and declining revenue on Tuesday, but CEO John Chen forecast that the company will break even next quarter, its first since quitting the smartphone business. The company signaled its departure from the smartphone hardware business last week, licensing its brand to TCL, the Chinese manufacturer that built the last two BlackBerry handsets. Chen's break-even forecast had a caveat: It didn't include restructuring charges, stock compensation expenses, fair-value adjustments and a host of other things, so the company will still make a loss, but a smaller one. With smartphones out of its product mix, BlackBerry is looking to a different kind of mobility to drive its future growth: the automotive industry, the major source of revenue for its QNX embedded software platform. QNX already powers infotainment systems, but Chen sees a big role for it in self-driving vehicles.