This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Activism-In-Motion
After months of increasingly aggressive shareholder activism, the long-standing co-CEOs (Balisillie and Lazaridis) of the struggling Blackberry maker have resigned as the former COO takes over as CEO and former-exchange executive takes over as chairperson.
- RESEARCH IN MOTION CO-CEOS/CHAIRMEN QUIT POSTS - BBG
- RIM NAMES BARBARA STYMIEST INDEPENDENT BOARD CHAIRMAN - BBG
- RESEARCH IN MOTION NAMES THORSTEN HEINS PRESIDENT, CEO - BBG
Research In Motion has clearly morphed into Activism-in-Motion as the Globe and Mail reports: "The catalyst for change appears to have been the entry of a new personality: reserved but revered investor Prem Watsa, the CEO of Fairfax Financial. Mr. Watsa, who has been called Canada’s Warren Buffett." While chatter appears to be that change-is-good, G&M go on to note, "Critics of the company’s performance may not be immediately impressed by
a management shakeup that involves so little fresh blood." as the Playbook fiasco is fresh in many people's minds but perhaps new CEO's Heins view that "We are not at a point where we try to define a strategy, that’s done" will not hearten those looking for real change.
The Globe And Mail - Jim Balsillie, Mike Lazaridis out, Thorsten Heins in as new RIM CEO
Research in Motion leaders Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are stepping down as executives and co-chairmen of the board of directors in the the biggest shake-up in the 27-year history of the Waterloo, Ont.-based startup turned global giant. The sudden move follows a year of decline in which RIM lost three-quarters of its market value, botched the launch of its PlayBook tablet and watched rivals eat into its market share for smartphones.
The new chief executive of RIM will be Thorsten Heins – a man they recruited five years ago who came to be a trusted advisor and their hand-picked successor. Calls for radical change at the company have been mounting in recent months. Its BlackBerry device blazed the trail for smartphones and has 75 million active subscribers around the world, but RIM has struggled of late with dwindling market share and fierce competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and an array of devices running Google Inc.’s Android operating system.
The catalyst for change appears to have been the entry of a new personality: reserved but revered investor Prem Watsa, the CEO of Fairfax Financial. Mr. Watsa, who has been called Canada’s Warren Buffett for his business acumen, has been quietly buying RIM stock for some time. Fairfax is now one of RIM’s largest shareholders, and Mr. Watsa is being appointed as a director to the company’s board after playing a role in key discussions in recent weeks.
Critics of the company’s performance may not be immediately impressed by a management shakeup that involves so little fresh blood. Mr. Heins is simply moving up the ranks, while newly appointed board chair Barbara Stymiest has been a director since 2007. But RIM’s new leadership – including Mr. Watsa, Mr. Heins and Ms. Stymiest – suggested in interviews with The Globe and Mail on Sunday that they are content with the company’s strategic direction and products, and will not seek major changes.
“There’s no need for me to shake this company up or turn it upside down,” Mr. Heins said at RIM’s Waterloo headquarters. “We are not at a point where we try to define a strategy, that’s done.”
Mr. Balsillie and Mr. Lazaridis have been grooming Mr. Heins as a successor for some time now, and say they decided to act as the company enters a new phase: RIM’s newest BlackBerry 7 devices are now out in the market, its PlayBook tablet is receiving a software revamp in February and its next-generation operating system – BlackBerry 10, which is meant to save the company – launching later this year.
“Jim and I approached the board and we told them that the time is now,” Mr. Lazaridis said.
Lazaridis said he plans to buy an additional $50 million of RIM shares on the open market
What will be RIM's near-term strategy?
In the longer term, Heins, previously one of RIM's chief operating officers, said he would push for more rigorous product development and place greater emphasis on executing the company's marketing plan and reaching out to customers.
He said RIM, which suffered a damaging outage of much of its network last year, has embarked on a global search for a chief marketing officer to improve advertising and other communication with consumers. Consumers now account for the majority of RIM's sales even though the BlackBerry built its reputation as a business tool.
For RIM critics, the focus on customers may seem long overdue. The company seemed blindsided by Apple's introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and was also slow to launch a competitor to the iPad. When its PlayBook tablet finally hit the market last spring, it was not equipped with RIM's trademark email service. The reviews were scathing, sales were anemic and the company has been forced to offer steep discounts.
Heins said it would be wrong of RIM to focus on licensing its software or integrated email package, a strategy that many analysts and investors have thought the company might pursue. Even so, the new CEO said the company would certainly be open to discussions of that nature.
With RIM's share price plummeting to eight-year lows, a flurry of speculation has bubbled to the surface in recent months that RIM was up for sale. Lazaridis and Balsillie were seen a major obstacles to any deal.
More from Reuters, with the instant analysts reactions:
EDWARD SNYDER, ANALYST AT CHARTER EQUITY RESEARCH
"It's the first positive thing that they have done in months. It's a step in the right direction.
"With them (Laziridis and Balsillie) still in the game, is their strategy going to continue with the new CEO? Is it a change in direction, or is it a move to the shareholders and investors off their backs? Is it a real change, or is it window-dressing?
"It sounds like it might be a first good step, but ... I have my doubts. My feeling is that it's a figure-head change.
"The stock will probably rally a bit."
MICHAEL URLOCKER, ANALYST AT GMP SECURITIES IN TORONTO
"I am not sure that an engineer as new CEO really gets to the central issues faced by RIM."
Sounds like the light for the activist investors to get really involved in RIMM is now flashing green. Look for those 13Gs filings any minute now.
- 5318 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -


rim is finished anyway thanks to aapl
Pass the iTorch?
Interesting that Canada's Buffet is of Indian Descent. RIM got rimmed basically for not wanting to play the NWO game.
They were reluctant to "open up" and so got smacked down.
Meanwhile AAPL steal your data, allows cops to download it via bluetooth....
It's just not an equal world out there... RIM is as good as dead.
ori
/au-kicks-a-joke-more-deep-symbolic-insights/
WTF is the article about? Thanks for the platform ZH. You know I love you.
Lets just cut to the chase. The young people know they're royally screwed over by the system and will never be able to collect on their SS payments when they retire. They know SS and Medicare are a ponzi scheme and they're also on the hook for the $16.5 trillion national debt. Lets just call a spade a spade.
It's simple math stupid.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1Z-ajFjMWc&feature=player_embedded
The sooner the greedy bastard boomers are in the dirt, the better. Only then will the pussified populace possibly partake in ponzicide.
Your anti-American alliteration always angers ardent advocates.
15 years from now 85% of them will be buried in the ground. Thank God.
RIM's Encryption ?
"The industry-leading security built into the BlackBerry® Enterprise Solution allows your users to confidently access sensitive information on the go.
Wireless Data Security
End-to-end Encryption The BlackBerry Enterprise Solution offers two transport encryption options, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and Triple Data Encryption Standard (Triple DES)*, for all data transmitted between BlackBerry® Enterprise Server and BlackBerry smartphones."
+1MM. This is what TPTB are after. I would not trust a label of so -called "hacktivists" .
Note that RIM has been under extreme pressure foreign powers (China, India, Saudi) to
shift the crypto to an escrow system and allow state intercepts. The only thing saving
RIM for now is the good agents of the sercret service and Obama's personal blackberry.
or is it?
Activism?
Bet these dead folks that voted in the SC primary were really active to have gotten up and voted aye!
http://www.dailypaul.com/207355/south-carolinas-attorney-general-detects...
South Carolina's Attorney General detects voter fraud during primariesJan 21, 2012
Already, there has been some question into folks who cast their ballots on Saturday.
South Carolina's Attorney General, Alan Wilson has notified the U.S. Justice Department of potential voter fraud.
Wilson says an analysis found 953 ballots cast by voters were people who are listed as dead.
He has asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate.
Canada's Warren Buffet? Does Becky Quicky have to blow this guy too?
Canada's Warren Buffet?I wouldn't want to be known as Canada's version of creepy old hypocrite pervert who blasts the system that made him the richest man in the U. S. The guy who says everybody else must pay more taxes while he hides his wealth in a trust so it's passed on tax free.
No wonder they got such a RIM-job.
They were run by Silly-balls and Lizard-ass. That's no way to run a railroad....
Same reason you don't want founders running companies too long - they stop doing a good job. Exact reason why Jerry Yang had to leave Yahoo!
Only in a few cases do you see founders doing a good job as managers. The skills you need as an entrepreneur are very different from the skills you need as a CEO.
Right, now let's see whether they ally with someone. Wouldn't be surprised if they ally with Samsung or one of the jilted Android players, who now need an OS big time.
Google buying Motorola was a game changer - before then basically you had these platforms:
Google Android (LG, HTC, Samsung, Motorola)
Apple
Nokia-MS
RIM
However Google buying Motorola meant that LG, HTC and Samsung were (thanks Tyler for this) subordinated. However one of them can now buy up RIM and have their own platform. Integration with the QNX OS might be a bitch though.
You do realise, RIM makes billions on service? Kevin wants the job.
http://crackberry.com/
RIM is going to make a killing in the future. Apple is going to lose market share. Jailbreak will fuck up Wall Street wet dreams. Remember with RIM, we will not hear about Chinese Apple employees committing suicide. QNX
Dingleberry 3.0 BlackBerry PlayBook root released
This is good news for Hamilton, Ont.
Now Balsillie can work full time in getting a NHL hockey team there.
Or maybe he can develope an app for that, I don't know.
Still, I'm just sayin'...
Oh Canada...
Our bought and paid for land,
True corporate love,
In Harper's oil sands.
<one of these days I'll finish this rendition...>
From far and wide
The bubbles rise
Backed by CMHC
You think SOPA is bad?
http://investmentwatchblog.com/threatening-new-bill-worse-than-sopapipa-...
H.R. 1981: Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011
That name is what brought the anecdote back to me. A better name for the child pornography bill would be The Encouragement of Blackmail by Law Enforcement Act. At issue is how to catch child pornographers. It’s too hard now, say the bill’s backers, and I can sympathize. It’s their solution that appalls me: under language approved 19 to 10 by a House committee, the firm that sells you Internet access would be required to track all of your Internet activity and save it for 18 months, along with your name, the address where you live, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and IP addresses you’ve been assigned.
Tracking the private daily behavior of everyone in order to help catch a small number of child criminals is itself the noxious practice of police states. Said an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation: “The data retention mandate in this bill would treat every Internet user like a criminal and threaten the online privacy and free speech rights of every American.” Even more troubling is what the government would need to do in order to access this trove of private information: ask for it.
I kid you not — that’s it.
As written, The Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 doesn’t require that someone be under investigation on child pornography charges in order for police to access their Internet history — being suspected of any crime is enough. (It may even be made available in civil matters like divorce trials or child custody battles.) Nor do police need probable cause to search this information. As Rep. James Sensenbrenner says, (R-Wisc.) “It poses numerous risks that well outweigh any benefits, and I’m not convinced it will contribute in a significant way to protecting children.”
Not really ! Playbook is a superb device and the price is great ! iPad is simply an attempt to produce a cheap Macbook since Macbooks are 50% more expensive than Wintel for similar spec. IPhone has crap predictive texting which is why I use my BB rather than my iPhone - and my IpHones always seem to fail after 9 months. Having evaluated BB against iPhone before buying iPhone I bought a BB later after my iPhone suddenly lost all volume. Just read the forums.
Monoculture suggests Apple should leave the PC market to Microsoft, but diversity suggests RIM is essential as a competitor to iPhone which is not as big in Europe anyway, and ridiculously overpriced for a $150 device - Apple must make 200% markup or more with its junk OS. I resist OS downloads from iPhone for fear of bricking the device.
Have a Playbook and its great.
do cheap homecoming dresses is look to get a suitable wedding party dress. At present, you don be worried about your party dress. There are numerous unique styles of wedding party dresses cosplay costumes for ladies during the market place. While in the Web you can assess the costs.cheap flower girl dresses Then you definitely can obtain the appropriate wedding celebration dresses