A ‘New’ BlackBerry? How 5 Corporate Reinventions Paid Off for Shareholders
Five famous companies ditched their original businesses and bet everything on a new identity. Some rewarded patient shareholders handsomely, others quietly destroyed a decade of wealth, and BlackBerry's story lands in the most complicated category of all.
For much of the past decade, Wall Street filed one once-dominant phone maker under ‘cautionary tales’: a smartphone pioneer that the iPhone sent packing. But on Oct. 26, 2026, the chief executive of BlackBerry (NYSE:BB) told CNBC’s Mad Money that the company’s core had changed: “While the products we sell today can’t be held in the palm of your hand, they’re pervasive around you. 275 million cars, robots, governments, medical instrumentation, supply chain. That’s the new BlackBerry.” The stock has surged 146.5% in 2026 as of Oct. 27.
When a famous company reinvents itself, how do shareholders actually fare? 24/7 Wall St. tested five corporate pivots: BlackBerry, Corning (NYSE:GLW | GLW Price Prediction), IBM (NYSE:IBM), Nokia (NYSE:NOK), and Western Union (NYSE:WU). Each is ranked by average annual stock return from its pivot date to the morning of Oct. 27, 2026, and compared with the benchmark S&P 500 over the same window.
These are stock price returns, and the S&P 500 comparison uses the index’s price. Dividends are excluded, which understates returns for dividend payers such as IBM, Nokia, and Western Union. Average annual return means the steady yearly rate that would produce the same total change.
Corning Rode the AI Fiber Wave to a 287% Gain
Corning built its name on TV display glass and Gorilla Glass. Its clock starts April 30, 2024, when it launched its Springboard growth plan, and the stock has since returned 72.2% a year against 18.6% for the S&P 500, a gap of 53.6 percentage points annually. Its total gain of 287.37% makes Corning the only one of the five to beat the market. It pivoted straight into a booming demand wave.
Optical Communications revenue rose 44% to $2.38 billion in the quarter reported Oct. 27, 2026, and enterprise sales have quadrupled from a $1.4 billion run rate to $6 billion. Fiber for AI data centers is exactly the kind of non-chip AI supplier story we rounded up in a free report on seven companies powering the buildout. The premium is steep at 38 times forward earnings, and shares fell 17.2% over the past month.
IBM’s Red Hat Pivot Matched the Index Almost Exactly
IBM was the mainframe and PC giant of the 20th century. Its clock starts July 9, 2019, when it closed the Red Hat acquisition and pushed into hybrid cloud. Since then, IBM has returned 13.8% a year versus 13.9% for the S&P 500, trailing by 0.1 percentage points. The pivot worked as a business, yet shareholders essentially earned what the index paid. Software revenue climbed 8.2% in the third quarter, with Red Hat up 11%, but Consulting grew just 0.2% and IBM Z mainframe revenue fell 20%. Excluding its $1.69 quarterly dividend shortchanges IBM’s return the most among the five.
Nokia Traded Handsets for Networks and Still Lagged
Nokia was the handset king the iPhone dethroned. Its clock starts April 25, 2014, when it completed the sale of its phone business. The stock has returned 4.3% a year since, against 12% for the S&P 500, trailing by 7.6 percentage points annually. Carrier equipment revenue sustained Nokia for most of that stretch, and the AI payoff arrived late. In the third quarter, AI & Cloud net sales jumped 123% in constant currency and IP Networks grew 45%, while Fixed Networks shrank 21%. Shares are up 35.2% in 2026, at 25 times forward earnings.
BlackBerry’s 2026 Rally Masks a Decade of Lag
BlackBerry’s clock starts Sept. 28, 2016, when it said it would stop designing phones in-house. It has returned 1.1% a year since, versus 13.4% for the S&P 500, trailing by 12.3 percentage points annually. Over the full window, it gained 11.88% while the index gained 254.57%. Nearly all the excitement is a 2026 rally: up 147.4% year to date, yet down 12.9% over five years.
The business has finally caught up. QNX posted record revenue of $80.3 million, up 27%, and the Coretura Alloy Kore design win added more than $100 million to the royalty backlog, the largest in QNX history. Shares still slipped after that record quarter, as 24/7 Wall St. covered at the time, and the stock trades at 69 times trailing earnings.
Western Union’s Digital Shift Shrank Its Profits
Western Union ended its telegram service on Jan. 27, 2006, the symbolic end of its original business. Its standalone stock price history begins Oct. 2, 2006, so that date starts the clock for Western Union and its S&P 500 comparison. The stock has posted an average annual loss of 1.8%, against a 9.1% annual gain for the index, a gap of 10.9 percentage points. Digital growth carries lower profit per transaction: Branded Digital transactions rose 25% in the second quarter, yet adjusted operating margin contracted to 15% from 19%. On the July 30, 2026, call, CEO Devin McGranahan said flatly, “This is not acceptable.”
By annual return, Western Union ranks last, yet BlackBerry trails the S&P 500 by a wider margin each year: 12.3 points versus 10.9.
What BlackBerry Must Prove for the Rally to Last
The “new BlackBerry” holds up as a business description. These five show that a pivot can succeed operationally without beating the market, and the clearest winner pivoted into a booming demand wave. BlackBerry’s 2026 rally becomes lasting outperformance only if QNX converts its backlog into production royalties, Alloy Kore lands passenger-vehicle wins beyond Coretura, and the company meets its raised fiscal 2027 revenue guidance of $616 million to $636 million. Physical AI, starting with its Uber design win, is the wave to track. Over the long run, Wall Street has tended to reward reinventions that ride surging demand, and BlackBerry now has one in reach.
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Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.
Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community.
Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.
Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions.
