Sunday, April 7, 2013

Canada provides £170m loan to Telefónica to help save BlackBerry

BlackBerry hopes the new Q10 smartphone, which has keyboard rather than a touchscreen like the Z10, pictured, is a hit with corporate customers. Photograph: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Canada has provided a 170m loan facility to European telecoms firm Telefonica to help it buy BlackBerry products and services, as the Ontario-based company tries to recover from a year in which it made a 425m loss and revenues fell 40%.

The news comes as Carphone Warehouse in the UK begins assessing customer interest in BlackBerry’s Q10 phone, which it says may go on sale in May, and could either ignite the firm’s revival or see it fizzle out. Carphone Warehouse has opened “pre-registrations” section on its website for the new keyboard-based phone.

Export Development Canada (EDC) announced the huge loan of working capital to the Spanish-owned company, which it said would “facilitate BlackBerry market share growth within Telefonica”.

Keep reading…

Read also:

Could a New BlackBerry Tablet Be More Than Just an April Fools' Joke? (Minyanville.com)

Blackberry Q10 price and release date confirmed for UK (T3)

BlackBerry Q10 goes up for sale in UK (Afterdawn.com)

Explore: 32 additional articles.

News Timeline



From Our Sponsor