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WATERLOO, ONTARIO – BlackBerry Ltd. says its net loss surged to US$144 million in its latest quarter as revenues fell 32 per cent.The Waterloo, Ont., based company, which reports in U.S. dollars, says it lost 25 cents per share in the three months ended Aug. 31, compared with a loss of four cents per share or US$23 million a year earlier.The loss includes 12 cents per share for a non-cash accounting adjustment to the fair value of the convertible debentures as a result of market and trading conditions.Excluding one-time items, it swung to an adjusted loss of US$33 million or six cents per share, versus an adjusted profit of $58 million or 10 cents per share in the second quarter of its fiscal 2021.BlackBerry was expected to report an adjusted loss of seven cents per share and a net loss of 13 cents per share on US$163.5 million of revenues, according to financial data firm Refinitiv.The company says it has appointed John Giamatteo, who was president and chief revenue officer at McAfee, as president of its cybersecurity business effective Oct. 4.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2021.Companies in this story: (TSX:BB)

TORONTO – Some of the most active companies traded Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange:Toronto Stock Exchange (20,401.49, up 157.20 points.)Baytex Energy Corp. (TSX:BTE). Energy. Up 34 cents, or 12.14 per cent, to $3.14 on 14.9 million shares.Canadian Natural Resources (TSX:CNQ). Energy. Up $1.61, or 3.87 per cent, to $43.25 on 10.7 million shares. Suncor Energy Inc. (TSX:SU). Energy. Up 86 cents, or 3.54 per cent, to $25.13 on 10.5 million shares.Cenovus Energy Inc. (TSX:CVE). Energy. Up 80 cents, or 7.39 per cent, to $11.62 on 7.5 million shares.Bombardier Inc. (TSX:BBD.B). Industrials. Up seven cents, or 3.83 per cent, to $1.90 on 6.2 million shares.Denison Mines Corp. (TSX:DML). Materials. Down four cents, or 2.22 per cent, to $1.76 on 4.7 million shares.Companies in the news: Aurora Cannabis Inc. (TSX:ACB). Down five cents to $7.67. Aurora Cannabis Inc. said eight per cent of its global workforce will be impacted by the forthcoming closure of one of its Alberta facilities. The cannabis company announced Wednesday that it is closing its Aurora Polaris property in Edmonton as part of a plan to streamline its operations. An Alberta government website detailing major projects in the region shows the Aurora Polaris facility was about 2,787 square meters with one-third of the space dedicated to warehousing and distribution of cannabis products and the remainder hosting product manufacturing. The website says the property had an estimated cost of $50 million and was adjacent to an Aurora Sky facility by the Edmonton International Airport. Aurora Polaris’ medical distribution operations will move to the Aurora Sky facility, while manufacturing will be relocated to Aurora River in Bradford, Ont. Aurora, which is headquartered in Edmonton, will keep its corporate office in Alberta. The changes come after the company moved the release of its fourth-quarter earnings from Sept. 21 to Sept. 27.CIBC (TSX:CM). Up 75 cents to $143.69. CIBC has unveiled its first new logo in almost 20 years as the bank looks to refresh its image. The Toronto-based bank says the rebrand comes after it has expanded its platform across North America and is now focused on “meeting the needs and expectations of clients on both sides of the border.” As part of its modernizations CIBC is also working to finish construction of CIBC Square, its new global headquarters in Toronto. The bank says the new logo is inspired by its 1966 double-chevron logo that it created to celebrate the bank’s 100-year anniversary. CIBC last updated its logo in 2003. The bank says it will launch the new brand on Thursday and roll it out on banking products and locations over the coming year.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2021.

CALGARY – Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has faced down a restive and divided United Conservative Party caucus, focusing on COVID-19 while managing to avoid a straw vote on his leadership.Kenney has been challenged by some of his legislature members for some of his decisions on COVID, which has escalated into a crisis that has overwhelmed the provincial health system and forced Alberta to seek outside help.UCP backbencher Searle Turton says it was a wide-ranging caucus meeting, but there was no vote of confidence on Kenney’s leadership.He says the focus of the debate was about the pandemic.Some of Kenney’s caucus members have criticized his health measures as being too little too late, while others say he has gone too far and violated individual rights by imposing a form of voluntary vaccine passports.The party’s vice-president of policy has already called for Kenney to resign and says enough constituency associations have signed on to force an early party review and vote on Kenney’s leadership.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2021.

Hyatt Hotels (H) shares slipped Wednesday after the chain said it would offer 7 million Class A common shares to partly fund its pending acquisition of Apple Leisure Group.Shares of the Chicago company at last check were down 1.2 per cent to $72.77 (U.S.).Hyatt said in a statement that it gave the underwriters a 30-day option on 1.05 million more shares.In August, Hyatt said it planned to buy Apple Leisure Group for $2.7 billion. Apple Leisure’s brand portfolio includes 33,000 hotel rooms concentrated in all-inclusive resorts in Mexico, the Caribbean and Europe.Apple Leisure also operates platforms for marketing vacation packages to consumers and travel agents. And it’s a major seller of charter flights from the U.S. to Mexico and the Caribbean.Last June, the company, which had been battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, hired advisers to explore raising new capital, according to Bloomberg.Hyatt said it intended to fund more than 80 per cent of the purchase price with a combination of $1 billion of cash on hand and new debt financing, and the rest with equity financing.The company said the acquisition would expand Hyatt’s presence in luxury leisure travel and immediately add about 100 hotels and a pipeline of 24 executed deals in and the to its portfolio.Following completion of the transaction, Hyatt said it would offer the largest portfolio of luxury all-inclusive resorts in the world.The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to customary closing conditions. KKR (KKR) and KSL Capital Partners had agreed to acquire Apple Leisure from Bain Capital in 2016. Separately, Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawyers “unexpectedly hit the pause button” on a long-running investigation into whether a group of major hotels hurt customers by colluding to stop competing for ad space in Google (GOOGL) search results, according a Wednesday report from The Information. The hotels in question included Hyatt, Hilton (HLT) and Marriott (MAR).FTC staff told the hotels in August that although the investigation, whose existence hasn’t previously been reported, would remain open, it would slow down as the agency focused more on reviewing mergers, the website said, citing people familiar with the investigation.

Shares of Adobe (ADBE) stumbled Wednesday on profit-taking after a strong earnings report for the latest quarter from the graphics-software titan.With the stock up 29 per cent year to date through Tuesday, investors saw an opportunity to take some money off the table.For the fiscal 2021 third quarter ended Sept. 3, profit rose to $1.21 billion (U.S.), or $2.52 a share, from $955 million, or $1.97 a share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings registered $3.11 a share, up from $2.57. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast $3.01 for the latest quarter.Adobe posted revenue of $3.94 billion, up 22 per cent from $3.23 billion in the year-earlier quarter. The FactSet analyst consensus called for $3.89 billion.The stock recently traded at $624, down 3.4 per cent.The San Jose, Calif., company predicts fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $3.18 a share on revenue of $4.07 billion. Analysts in the FactSet survey estimate $3.08 a share on revenue of $4.04 billion.Morningstar analyst Dan Romanoff puts fair value at $610 for the stock.“Wide-moat Adobe reported strong third-quarter results, including upside to guidance for revenue and non-GAAP earnings per share,” he wrote Tuesday.“We continue to see strength in all segments and geographies … and are pleased to see continued strength in the digital experience segment, which we believe is critical for growth longer-term.“We think [the] results continue to support our investment case that Adobe will continue to dominate the creative segment. And its well-rounded portfolio, including Magento and Marketo, position the firm as a digital marketing leader.”But “given the stock’s run year to date, we see [the] shares as fairly valued,” Romanoff said.

General Electric (GE) shares traded higher Wednesday after the industrial group said it’s in preliminary talks to sell some of its nuclear power assets to France’s Électricité de France for around $1.2 billion (U.S.).GE Steam Power, which is run by recently-appointed CEO Valerie Marjollet, purchased the power and grid business of France-based Alstom in 2015 and now provides steam turbines for Europe’s second-largest economy. It’s also the main supplier of EdF’s nuclear power plant at Britain’s Hinkley Point, a $30 billion project that is expected to come online in 2026.Steam is one of the four units in GE’s broader Power division, which generated around $300 million in operating profits over the second quarter, and its 7 per cent operating margin was the best in four years. A sale of the steam turbines business, analysts have argued, would leave Power to focus more on higher-margin services linked to its existing portfolio. The potential Steam Power sale would modestly accelerate GE’s progress on FCF margins, deleveraging, and strategic repositioning, in our view,” said Bank of America analyst Andrew Obin when news of the sale was first reported by France’s La Tribune newspaper late last month.General Electric shares were marked 2.7 per cent higher in early trading Wednesday to change hands at $98.30 each. General Electric shares have fallen around 3 per cent since they began trading on an adjusted basis in early August following a 1-for-8 stock split the group said would “reduce the number of shares outstanding “to a number more typical of companies with comparable market capitalization,” taking the total from around 8.8 billion to 1.1 billion.GE said in late July that adjusted non-GAAP earnings for the three months ending in June were pegged at 5 cents per share, up from a loss last year and 2 cents ahead of the Street consensus forecast. Group revenues also beat the Street, rising 9 per cent to $18.3 billion.Aviation segment revenues rose 10 per cent from last year to $4.84 billion, GE said, while orders were up 47 per cent to $5.5 billion. Healthcare revenues jumped 14 per cent to $4.45 billion while renewable energy revenues gained 16 per cent to $4.05 billion.Looking into the second half of the year, GE reiterated that its sees adjusted earnings in the region of 15 cents to 25 cents per share, but lifted its forecast for industrial free cash flows to between $3.5 billion and $5 billion. Industrial free cash flow for the first quarter was $388 million, GE said, compared to -$845 million in the previous quarter.

Shares of General Mills (GIS) jumped after the cereal and packaged-foods giant reported fiscal-first-quarter results ahead of analyst expectations. For the quarter ended Aug. 29 the Minneapolis company reported adjusted earnings of 99 cents a share on revenue of $4.54 billion (U.S.). Analysts surveyed by FactSet were expecting earnings of 89 cents a share on revenue of $4.3 billion.The results reflected a “dynamic and challenging operating environment,” Chief Executive Jeff Harmening said in a statement. The company advanced its “Accelerate strategy, including making important progress on portfolio reshaping.”General Mills says it pandemic effects — like work from home and appreciation for cooking and baking — to continue to drive consumer demand for its products past prepandemic levels.General Mills shares at last check were rising 3.2 per cent to $59.88.The company’s operating profit fell 1 per cent year over year to $844 million while its operating-profit margin of 18.6 per cent narrowed 1 percentage point.Revenue at General Mills’ North American retail segment fell 3 per cent to $2.64 billion. That was prompted by lower at-home food demand and by a tough comparison to a year earlier, when retailers were rebuilding inventory that had been depleted earlier in the pandemic. During the quarter, the company completed the acquisition of Tyson Foods’ (TSN) pet treats business as it looked to tap into the estimated $37 billion U.S. pet food category.

Analysts on Wednesday voiced support for Disney (DIS), describing the recent sell-off of the entertainment giant’s shares as a “knee-jerk reaction” and “overdone”Shares of the Burbank, Calif., company at last check were up 1.8 per cent to $174.25 (U.S.).Disney shares ended down 4.2 per cent on Tuesday after Chief Executive Bob Chapek said Disney expected to add “low single-digit millions” of Disney Plus streaming subscribers in the fourth quarter, according to CNBC.JPMorgan analyst Alexia Quadrani, who has a price target of $220 on Disney, reiterated her overweight rating.“We remain very encouraged by the growth outlook for Disney Plus and are not concerned with this modest shortfall versus expectations,” Quadrani said in a research note. “More positively, the parks only saw a brief impact from the delta variant and bounced back very quickly following Labor Day.”Overall, the analyst said she views the sell-off as “overdone” and sees “the current price as an attractive entry point as the robust growth in [direct-to-consumer] subscribers should ultimately be positive for [the] shares over the long term.”Chapek, who commented at the virtual Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference, said that hurting subscriber numbers were: “mobilizing partners” in Latin America to push Disney’s new Star+ streaming service; the COVID-19-related suspension of the India Premier League, whose games air on Disney’s Hotstar; and production delays from the COVID Delta variant.“Disney lost $14 billion of market cap on Tuesday, almost entirely when [Chapek] made his business update commentary,” Credit Suisse analyst Douglas Mitchelson said in a research note.The analyst, who has an outperform rating and $218 price target on the company’s shares, said that “the knee-jerk reaction in Disney’s stock” was similar to what he believed was an overreaction to Comcast’s (CMCSA) third-quarter broadband net add guidance last week.Mitchelson said Disney’s long-term streaming outlook “remains highly uncertain and heavily debated, and thus minor shifts in near-term results will continue to have an outsized impact on its stock price.”He added that Disney+Hotstar subscribers should be reported separately from core Disney Plus given its lack of relevance to the financial outcomes for Disney streaming in the near to medium term.Meanwhile, TheStreet’s Jim Cramer and the Action Alerts Plus Team initiated a position on Disney, saying that “despite the headlines impacting the share price today, we see no reason to feel any less bullish about the long-term prospects at Disney.”“After reading Chapek’s update, we are encouraged by how he said that attendance has recovered “quite nicely” after experiencing a delta-related slowdown shortly after the company’s last earnings call,” Cramer and the team said. “But most importantly, Chapek gave zero indication that he is any less confident in the company’s long-term sub growth forecast and the timeline of when the streaming business will reach profitability.”“We feel this makes today’s pullback a short-term blip and not a thesis changer,” the team said.

The Globe and Mail led news outlets for reporting awards from the Canadian chapter of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, with 12 silver and gold medals at the 2020 awards.The newspaper also received three honourable mentions, while its Report on Business magazine won a gold for a profile of geologist Eira Thomas.Other gold medals awarded to the Globe included its podcast “Stress Test,” its breaking news coverage of Coastal Gaslink protests and a short feature on Canadian involvement in fracking in the U.S.Bloomberg took home three medals, including one for an article in its Bloomberg Businessweek magazine.The Canadian Press won two medals: silver in the “package” category for Tara Deschamps’ series on diversity and a silver in the short feature category for Anita Balakrishnan’s story about a resurgence in the labour movement through the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.Other winners for the Canadian awards included the Toronto Star, the Logic, and the Financial Post. CBC was given an honourable mention in the audio or visual storytelling category.SABEW dedicated its outstanding achievement award to Michael Babad, a longtime Globe and Mail editor who died of cancer in March 2020.The organization described Babad as “a mentor and champion to generations of reporters, supporting them with kindness and patience.” He served as a senior business editor at the Globe for two decades, and also worked with the Toronto Star, Financial Post and United Press International.SABEW awarded the Jeff Sanford Best Young Journalist Award to Shelly Hagan of Bloomberg News.Bloomberg Canada managing editor Derek DeCloet said Hagan rose to the occasion after joining Bloomberg just before the start of the pandemic.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept 22, 2021.———A subsidiary of the Globe and Mail holds an investment in The Canadian Press as part of a joint agreement with Torstar and a subsidiary of Montreal’s La Presse

HALIFAX – Canadians venturing out into commercial spaces for the first time since the pandemic began may spot some made-in-Canada technology whizzing around, keeping the high-traffic floors squeaky clean.Autonomous floor scrubbers are increasingly being used at airports, hospitals, universities, sports facilities and shopping malls as COVID-19 sharpens the public’s focus on the cleanliness of public spaces. While some may wonder if the robots are eliminating workers’ jobs, the entrepreneurs behind the futuristic scrubbers say that’s not the case, as the commercial cleaning industry struggles with a perennial labour shortage. “People are not getting fired after a company buys a Neo,” said Faizan Sheikh, co-founder and CEO of Avidbots, a Kitchener, Ont., company that designs and manufactures the Neo autonomous commercial floor cleaner. “The natural attrition rate is very high.”The COVID-19 health crisis called attention to the high turnover rate in the cleaning industry and the challenges and importance of keeping public spaces clean, he said. “What the pandemic did was it really shone a light on the value of clean,” Sheikh said. “There’s a very long-standing trend towards automation in the cleaning industry and the pandemic has accelerated that progress.”Faizan and his co-founder Pablo Molina launched Avidbots in 2014 after graduating from Mechatronics Engineering — or robotics — at the University of Waterloo.The entrepreneurs, originally from Pakistan and Ecuador, both grew up fascinated with shows like “The Jetsons” and Japan’s “Jiban” and wanted to see robotics in everyday life.“We were frustrated that robotics weren’t going anywhere, that we weren’t surrounded by robots everywhere,” Faizan said. “It came to a point where we could actually do something about it or stop talking about it.”They focused on commercial cleaning to start and developed one of the world’s first commercial robotic floor cleaners, called the Neo. The company has grown from two employees and a mission to make robots ubiquitous to a staff of more than 250 in its Kitchener headquarters and offices in Chicago, South America, Japan and South Korea.Faizan declined to discuss how the pandemic has affected Avidbot sales, but said that demand for its products has increased.The autonomous floor scrubber — what some have described as a robotic mini-Zamboni —cleans up to 3,900 square metres an hour. It’s outfitted with multiple sensors to detect and avoid obstacles in its path, the company says. Unlike traditional walk-behind floor scrubbers, the Neo only needs a human to press start and can operate for up to six hours without a recharge.The robots are now in more than 75 commercial facilities across Canada, including retail malls, warehouses and educational facilities, and expanding quickly around the world.The robots don’t come cheap. The newest iteration, called the Neo 2, costs US$67,000 up front, plus an additional US$9,700 a year from the second year onwards to cover maintenance and software upgrades. The company has also developed a disinfection sprayer add-on that can sanitize high-touch surfaces like railings, doorknobs and water fountains — areas that have been the focus of increased cleaning during the pandemic. The add-on is US$8,500 up front, then US$3,000 a year from the second year onward. While some might question the cost, Faizan says the robot allows workers to focus on other tasks. In some cases, he says workers who operate floor cleaners have another duty, such as driving a forklift or packing boxes. The robot floor cleaner frees them up to focus on those revenue-generating activities, he says. In commercial spaces with dedicated cleaning professionals, human cleaners are able to increase the frequency of cleaning and sanitizing in other areas like washrooms and high-touch surfaces, he says. The robotic floor scrubber also provides detailed cleaning reports.“You can guarantee that cleaning happens,” Faizan says. “When the pandemic happened and even still now, retailers are talking about the efforts they are taking to keep customers safe, including better cleaning and sanitation. This is a proof point.”Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto purchased its first robot cleaner from Avidbots nearly five years ago. The automated floor scrubber, which the mall workers named Frankie, initially ran during the day and became a minor mall attraction.It’s now primarily used after hours, says Will Correia, director of the Oxford Properties Group mall. “It’s programmed to stop if it comes within a certain number of feet of someone, so it’s more effective after hours,” he says. “It does a great job and saves energy and water.”The mall purchased a second robot cleaner during the pandemic, freeing up cleaning staff to focus more on other areas, Correia says. “We haven’t let any staff go because of a robot, but we’ve definitely reallocated some of the resources and it’s made us better for sure.” Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport bought three Neo floor scrubbers before the pandemic hit, says Karim Benani, the airport’s deputy director of contracts management.It’s an investment that has paid off, especially during the pandemic when passengers are more concerned than ever about cleanliness and sanitation, he says. “People just stand and stare on the robots, there’s still a wow effect,” Benani says. “We put a smiley face on ours so it looks friendly and children are very amused when they see it.”While the airport outsources cleaning to a service provider, he says the robots ensure the airport is kept to the highest standards of cleanliness. “This is additional cleaning,” Benani says. “We don’t tell our providers, ‘We’re going to give you robots, so we you can afford to let go two or three people.’ It’s not a replacement strategy, it’s enhanced cleaning.”This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 22, 2021.