BlackBerry gains on partnership with AMD for robotics systems

BLACKBERRY shares jumped more than 7 per cent on Tuesday (Apr 9) after the Canadian company teamed up with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to roll out a platform that will enable better robotics capabilities for the industrial and healthcare industries.

The collaboration, announced at the Embedded World conference at Nuremberg, Germany, will use BlackBerry’s ONX platform.

BlackBerry’s US-listed shares hit a nearly three-month high before settling at US$3.

The company, which now generates revenue from its cybersecurity offerings and licensing software to a range of sectors, has struggled to grow in the recent years. Its NY-listed stock is down 13 per cent year to date, compared to a 9 per cent rise in the benchmark S&P 500.

The technology “takes the future of robotics technology well beyond the constraints experienced until now,” Chetan Khona, senior director of industrial, vision, healthcare and sciences markets at AMD, said in a statement. REUTERS