BlackBerry steps back on handset business, shares jump

[Wireless News]

http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/mopEwMR8fNlQhEjJD3AHeA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2013-12-23T082447Z_3_CBRE9BJ1K6Z00_RTROPTP_2_BLACKBERRY.JP G (http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-steps-back-handset-business-shares-jump-082143808--sector.html)By Euan Rocha, Alastair Sharp and Allison Martell TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry Ltd said on Friday it was entering a handset production deal that lowers the risk it will have to take more massive writedowns on unsold smartphones, and its shares surged even though it posted dismal quarterly results. The stock rose as much as 17 percent after the company announced the five-year partnership with FIH Mobile Ltd. The Hong Kong-listed unit of Taiwan's Foxconn will initially build low-end devices for sale in Indonesia and other emerging markets. BlackBerry said it hoped to expand the fledgling relationship to its top-of-the-line smartphones. The deal is unconventional in that BlackBerry will no longer pay upfront for components used in the devices made on its behalf in Foxconn's Indonesian and Mexican factories.



More... (http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-steps-back-handset-business-shares-jump-082143808--sector.html)