New RIM CEO will not change strategy on PlayBook, BlackBerry 10
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.
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.
Comments
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.
"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.
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.
In an interview this patsy said
"as we move decisive into execution mode" yeah executing the break up and firesale of RIM
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, how much is he getting paid to do this? Which company will RIM be bought by?
Any guesses?
Well here's my take in this post on the previous announcement thread re: RIM .
Don't be surprised if in the next few months there will be multiple-million $$ orders for new equipment... supplied by Siemens.... and any new products "possibly" coming to T-mobile first and at a better bargains than elsewhere. Been in the same room where all these "decision makers" are best "Butties".
Well here's my take in this post on the previous announcement thread re: RIM .
Don't be surprised if in the next few months there will be multiple-million $$ orders for new equipment... supplied by Siemens.... and any new products "possibly" coming to T-mobile first and at a better bargains than elsewhere. Been in the same room where all these "decision makers" are best "Butties".
In a perverse way, there might be a few chances to make some quick money on this stock buying on the dips and some put options as the pundits and their cronies start talking up the share price in advance of a deal
g, c eeeeee
g, c eee, g,c eee, g,c eeeee
c, e geeeeee
e, c geeeeee
g, g ceeeeee
Musical joke, about a 'Taps' interface.
[...] But he also said that RIM's recent struggles have been a result of "process execution" and marketing, as opposed to product innovation. [...]
It doesn't matter how well RIM executes their current plan, and it doesn't matter how well they market it.
I give them 6 more months before bankruptcy and/or being sold to a larger company for their patent portfolio.
[/s]
g, g ceeeeeee
g, c eeeeee
g, c eee, g,c eee, g,c eeeee
c, e geeeeee
e, c geeeeee
g, g ceeeeee
Musical joke, about a 'Taps' interface.
after the last C, glissando down about 4 octaves to a sample of a toilet flushing
In a perverse way, there might be a few chances to make some quick money on this stock buying on the dips and some put options as the pundits and their cronies start talking up the share price in advance of a deal
The Forums on AI are acting up seriously(!)... anyway...
Yes, I've done some "little" bets quite awhile back re: RIMM.
The markets don't seem to be as optimistic as Herr Heins... RIMM down ~6,5%... but still up from a low of 12.00. Sure hope no one held on from a year ago when RIMM was at 71.00!!!!
This is a pretty good article: Denial is not a Turnaround Strategy
If you took the statements of new Research in Motion (NSDQ: RIMM) CEO Thorsten Heins this morning at face value, you might walk away thinking the company?s many problems stem from confused marketing and poor execution. They don?t: it?s all about the product, stupid, and that?s why the investors who clamored for RIM to name a new CEO are not impressed with the early returns.
We should all remember that there was a time when Apple was on its way out too. It took the return of SJ to turn things around. Remember the story of people finding Michael Spindler hiding under his desk when he was CEO of Apple? Fine, don't have sympathy for the bad decisions made by management but these guys all have their golden parachutes and will be just fine. It's the RIM rank and file employees I feel sorry for. They will lose their jobs if/when RIM tanks because the (in this case) founders can't deal with the reality of the current mobile world. Like so many others RIM laughed when the iPhone came out. They had no clue what titanic shifts in the market were unleashed at the time. Just like the executives at Xerox had no clue what they had in the PARC labs and what it would mean to the PC business. If they did we would be using Xerox branded Macs today.
I think RIM's major undoing was to sink a ton of its resources into developing the Playbook. had they fixed the core product then they might have had a fighting chance.
Now RIM has done an early 90s Apple trick and hired the CEO from within the ranks. This imo is the last nail in the coffin and Heins is about to pound it into place.
In what seemed like a testy interview with Toronto’s Globe and Mail, Heins scoffed at the notion that RIM needed change.
Change to what? Change for what? I mean, what’s the objective of a change? We’ve made a lot of changes in the past 18 months. … We didn’t stand still in the last 18 months, we did our homework. And I think we will complete our homework soon.
Well he's just being himself.
From the article posted above re: Denial...