One of BlackBerry’s major shareholders, Prem Watsa, thinks BlackBerry shares are worth over $40. In a brief interview conducted by Seeking Alpha’s Wilson Wang, Mr. Watsa indicated that he feels BlackBerry is doing all the right things in all the right ways and is a strong competitor in the smartphone market as it stands today.
Mr. Watsa was asked about Mike Lazaridis and his position within the company now that he has stepped down from the Board of Directors, “Thorsten [Heins] has done an amazing job in turning around the company. We think that Mike left the company because he knew that he left it in good hands, and that the team Thorsten has hired will help the turnaround effort. Mike also told me that it felt like leaving his son and letting him get married. He will not sell his shares and continues to support the company.”
Also when asked about the strength of the current BlackBerry brand Mr. Watsa indicated that, “If BlackBerry is able to maintain a 5% market share, then you have to roughly sell 80 million smartphones. They shipped 6 million last quarter, 1 million new phones and they are already profitable.” This is a big if, but the company fundamentals and battle plan have been executed very well in the past few months – and allow me to read in between the lines of what Mr. Watsa is saying right now – so if BlackBerry stays the course, they should meet or exceed this goal, while maintaining their profitability, very methodically. “We think the fair value is around $40 something and the time horizon is long-term as always, but we feel very confident in the management team,” stated Watsa.
And regarding the market share competition, Mr. Watsa has this to say: “Competition is going to be fierce going forward, I mean you got companies like Apple and Google with the Android, but BlackBerry has the security like no other. You can’t get the kind of security you want on an iPhone. But we think BlackBerry has its place in the market.”
What do you think? Is BlackBerry going to rise to over $40 per share? Voice your opinion in the comments below!