Neil Hughes
RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins joined the company's chairman of the board, Barb Stymiest, in a conference call with investors on Monday morning. It was the first chance for investors to hear from RIM's new CEO, who took over on Sunday after co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resigned.
Heins told analysts and investors that he is not pursuing strategic options for RIM like a sale of the company or a split. He also indicated he is focused on RIM's current strategy, which involves the struggling PlayBook, a tablet that cost the company $485 million from unsold inventory last year.
Analyst Mike Abramsky with RBC Capital Markets said Heins seemed upbeat and optimistic about his new role at RIM. But he also said that RIM's recent struggles have been a result of "process execution" and marketing, as opposed to product innovation.
In addition to putting his support behind the PlayBook, Heins also said he stands by BlackBerry 10, RIM's forthcoming mobile operating system update. Smartphones running BlackBerry 10 are expected to arrive in the second half of calendar 2012, a date some industry watchers believe may be too little, too late.
Abramsky noted that Heins did not indicate how he intends to address RIM's challenges in the consumer market, although the call was kept short. He believes that the "entrenched stance" shown by Heins could disappoint some investors who were hoping to see more drastic changes at RIM.
Separately, Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company said he believes the changes at RIM are "more cosmetic than substantive." He noted that Lazaridis will remain vice-chairman of the board at RIM while Balsillie will continue as a board member, though not in an active role at the company.
"RIM's last hope for returning to relevancy is BlackBerry 10," Wolf wrote in a note to investors. "If that platform is not successful, RIM's days could be numbered although BlackBerry continues to have a devoted following in the enterprise market and among the younger crowd in emerging markets."
If RIM does stay the course with its current strategy, it would be a very different approach than Nokia, which chose to abandon its struggling Symbian platform when new CEO Stephen Elop took the helm. In an internal memo, Elop referred to Symbian as a "burning platform" that Nokia needed to abandon in order to survive. Elop, a former Microsoft executive, guided Nokia from its own proprietary Symbian platform to Microsoft's Windows Phone, a transition that remains underway.
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Andrew Orr
Mike Wuerthele
45 Comments
Remind me again, what's the definition of 'Insanity"?
I have no sympathy for the executives who made bad decisions, and have essentially put RIM on the 2012 Deathwatch. However, I do feel sorry for the hundreds/thousands of engineers, programmers and other people who stand to lose their employment, thanks to the decisions made by these same executives.
Those who do their job, are punished. Those who created the problem, not only keep their jobs, but also get a bonus for the cost-cutting they 'create' by terminating thousands of employees.
Does "will not change strategy" mean "continue to refuse to allow people to use a concept as basic as e-mail on their tablet without buying one of our phones, too"?
The new CEO: Mr Sock Puppet
In related news, Dead Horse Flogging seen overtaking Ice Hockey as Canada's National Pastime...
In an interview this patsy said
"as we move decisive into execution mode" yeah executing the break up and firesale of RIM, whenever a CEO starts mouthing garbage like this, you know its time to run like hell.
it really mean " I have no clue what I'm doing but it sounds like I do, and I know how to say all the right things - God I hope I can con someone to buy this pig soon"
"hey mate, I got this great new phone for you, real bargain, c'mon 10c a dozen, no R&D or Dev costs, ready to go, I'll even throw in a manufacturing plant "Basically this shrub is the manager charged with getting as much money for the biggest shareholders as he can and reducing their losses, how much is he getting paid to do this? Which company will RIM be bought by?
Any guesses?
Despite the fact that it has a new CEO at the helm, Research in Motion will not see a major shakeup in the near future, and will continue to support the PlayBook tablet and the BlackBerry 10 platform as previously planned.
RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins joined the company's chairman of the board, Barb Stymiest, in a conference call with investors on Monday morning. It was the first chance for investors to hear from RIM's new CEO, who took over on Sunday after co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resigned.
Heins told analysts and investors that he is not pursuing strategic options for RIM like a sale of the company or a split. He also indicated he is focused on RIM's current strategy, which involves the struggling PlayBook, a tablet that cost the company $485 million from unsold inventory last year.
Analyst Mike Abramsky with RBC Capital Markets said Heins seemed upbeat and optimistic about his new role at RIM. But he also said that RIM's recent struggles have been a result of "process execution" and marketing, as opposed to product innovation.
In addition to putting his support behind the PlayBook, Heins also said he stands by BlackBerry 10, RIM's forthcoming mobile operating system update. Smartphones running BlackBerry 10 are expected to arrive in the second half of calendar 2012, a date some industry watchers believe may be too little, too late.
Abramsky noted that Heins did not indicate how he intends to address RIM's challenges in the consumer market, although the call was kept short. He believes that the "entrenched stance" shown by Heins could disappoint some investors who were hoping to see more drastic changes at RIM.
"RIM's last hope for returning to relevancy is BlackBerry 10," Wolf wrote in a note to investors. "If that platform is not successful, RIM's days could be numbered although BlackBerry continues to have a devoted following in the enterprise market and among the younger crowd in emerging markets."
If RIM does stay the course with its current strategy, it would be a very different approach than Nokia, which chose to abandon its struggling Symbian platform when new CEO Stephen Elop took the helm. In an internal memo, Elop referred to Symbian as a "burning platform" that Nokia needed to abandon in order to survive. Elop, a former Microsoft executive, guided Nokia from its own proprietary Symbian platform to Microsoft's Windows Phone, a transition that remains underway.