Updating Restaurant Brands International Inc. and BlackBerry Inc.

Article Excerpt

RESTAURANT BRANDS INTERNATIONAL INC. $51 (www.rbi.com) has joined McDonald’s and KFC in bringing back old mascots. The company’s Burger King chain is now using its big-headed “King” mascot for the first time since 2011. It recently paid $200,000 to have the King appear on TV at the Belmont Stakes horse race behind Bob Baffert, the trainer of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. In May, the company reportedly paid $1 million to have the King included in Floyd Mayweather’s entourage during his Las Vegas boxing match against Manny Pacquiao. Stunts like these generate lots of free publicity and are cheaper than traditional TV advertising. Hold. BLACKBERRY INC. $10 (www.blackberry.com) aims to unlock more of its QNX software’s value; QNX powers communication and entertainment systems in 60 million cars. The application has 50% of this market but faces strong competition from Microsoft and free Linux-based systems. Separately, BlackBerry is expanding its security-software operations, which protect mobile communications. Software revenue (21% of the…