Something very curious happened late last week: BlackBerry posted worse-than-expected quarterly earnings and yet its stock soared following the news. Why, you ask? In part because the stock had almost nowhere to go but up since a valuation in the low $6-per-share range gave the company a market cap worth significantly less than the worth of its total assets. However, there was another crucial reason for the surge in BlackBerry shares: New CEO John Chen apparently gave investors fresh confidence that he had something resembling a plan to stabilize the company’s finances and prevent it from plunging completely into oblivion. Barron’s flags a few notes from analysts who give Chen an early thumbs-up for his plan to abandon the high-end



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