BlackBerry Gets A Helping Hand From Canada, With A $256M Loan To Telefonica For BB Devices

BlackBerry last week posted better than expected quarterly results, but it’s not out of the woods yet. Now Canada is stepping in to help. Today, Export Development Canada, the Canadian export credit agency, announced that it has provided a ?200 million ($256 million) working capital facility to Telefonica, one of the world’s biggest mobile operators, to procure BlackBerry smartphones, services and solutions for its global footprint, which covers 315.7 million subscribers across 24 countries. The deal underscores the fact that while BlackBerry is pushing very hard for a turnaround with the launch of BB10 and a raft of new devices, it is also still working hard to convince carriers that they should be making the extra investment to stock its devices. This injection of capital for one of the world’s biggest carriers ensures that it will be making the investment to get those phones out to the market. It may also be a sign of how carriers, worried about taking risks on devices that are not guaranteed, sure-fire hits, may now not be willing to gamble as they have done before. This is not the first time that the EDC has worked with Telefonica. It has been providing financing since 2006 “in support of its various Canadian procurement needs.” Those would have presumably also included deals with the likes of Nortel, the now-defunct Canadian telecoms vendor. Release below. More to come. Refresh for updates. OTTAWA, April 4, 2013 /CNW/ – Export Development Canada (EDC) today announced that it has provided a ?200M working capital facility to Telef?nica to facilitate the procurement of BlackBerry? smartphones, services and solutions across its worldwide operations. Telef?nica is one of the largest global telecommunications companies, with operations in 24 countries and a customer base of over 315.7 million subscribers. EDC’s working capital facility will facilitate BlackBerry market share growth within Telef?nica. “EDC’s financing is really about making the transactions between BlackBerry and Telef?nica easier, helping to enhance and broaden the relationship between these two major global players,” said Lewis Megaw , Regional Vice President Africa Europe and the Middle East, EDC. EDC has provided financing to Telef?nica since 2006 in support of its various Canadian procurement needs. Two-way trade between Canada and Spain reached CAD 2.6 billion in 2012, primarily in the ICT, Aerospace and Extractive sectors. Of that, over 500 Canadian companies used EDC’s services to undertake more than CAD 414.8 million in trade

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