BlackBerry (Symbol-BB) formerly Research in Motion (RIM)

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NormR
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by NormR »

Peculiar_Investor wrote:Tomorrow's market action will be interesting. Anyone care to place on bet on whether this will be received as positive or negative?
How about a bet on whether or not Norbert will be trading this week. :wink:
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

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Peculiar_Investor wrote:Breaking news, At Research In Motion, a new CEO vows to silence the doomsayers - The Globe and Mail
COO Thorsten Heins takes over from RIM's visionary co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, at the most difficult juncture in the firm's long history

<snip>

The two former CEOs also relinquished their co-chair positions on the board, with Mr. Lazaridis becoming vice-chair of the board with special duties to examine innovation and Mr. Balsillie becoming an ordinary director.

But the radical changes at RIM, which also saw director Barbara Stymiest become board chair
Tomorrow's market action will be interesting. Anyone care to place on bet on whether this will be received as positive or negative?
What a joke.....nobody there seems to understand the need for radical change or selling out!The market will decide shortly.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by George$ »

I don't see Prem Watsa as a passive, hands-off investor in RIM. I think he may be intimately involved in future upper management changes at RIM. Time will tell how it all will work out.

If the RIM price goes down further - perhaps I will buy more - to be on the same side as Prem - dunno for sure :?

Watsa no stranger to betting on perceived value
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by Bylo Selhi »

Also Watsa has a technical background (IIT grad in chemical engineering) plus connections at UW (as chancellor), so hopefully he's better equipped than Buffett to "understand" a technology company like RIM.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

A couple of interesting guests and viewpoints from Lang and O'Leary Exchange, see RIM’s Hail Mary misses the mark with "Vic Alboini, RIM shareholder and CEO of Jaguar Financial and Mike Abramsky, analyst from RBC Capital Markets, on how the BlackBerry maker's management changes aren't enough."
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by Butler »

Up over 8% today? Is there another takeover rumour making the rounds?
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by Norbert Schlenker »

NormR wrote:How about a bet on whether or not Norbert will be trading this week. :wink:
Not feeling particularly itchy lately. Did you bet? :lol:
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by Bylo Selhi »

RIM shifts BlackBerry development work to Ottawa
Ottawa has quietly become the “epicentre” of all development for Canadian technology giant Research In Motion Ltd.While many already know that RIM’s new BlackBerry operating system (OS) is being developed by Ottawa subsidiary QNX Software Systems Ltd., in a Citizen interview on Wednesday, new chief executive Thorsten Heins said the company’s ties to the nation’s capital are much stronger. Almost all development for the company’s upcoming flagship BlackBerry 10 device is being done in the nation’s capital...

Heins said the demise of technology giants such as Nortel, JDS and others presented RIM with the opportunity to tap into a highly skilled workforce with experience in large product development. For example, Nortel had an entire unit dedicated to making long-term evolution (LTE) cellular technology, the technology that RIM’s new BlackBerry devices will run on...

While the spotlight has been shining brightly on QNX for its work on the PlayBook and upcoming BlackBerry devices, the company has been a success for decades supplying OS for video game consoles, electrical grids, television set-top boxes and many other sectors. In the automotive world, QNX’s software is the equivalent of Microsoft Corp.’s Windows for PCs. With the notable exception of Ford Motor Co., a vast majority of the world’s big automakers run versions of the QNX OS in their cars. RIM is working to take advantage of that strength, according to Heins, and consumers could likely soon see RIM’s PlayBook software running on in-car entertainment systems, smart television sets and in-store retail displays.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by George$ »

Today's wall Street Journal
Research In Motion Ltd.'s newest director, Prem Watsa, has boosted his stake in the struggling BlackBerry maker to just over 5%.

Mr. Watsa, chief executive of Canadian investment giant Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd., was named to RIM's board earlier this week as part of the company's management shake-up.

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Mr. Watsa and entities related to him now own 26,848,500 shares of RIM, or 5.12%. That is up from about 11.8 million, or 2.3%, held as of the end of September, which made the money manager RIM's fourth-largest shareholder.

Mr. Watsa, one of Canada's best-known value investors, said earlier this week that he had recently bought up RIM shares because of his belief in the long-term value of the company.
And a longer report on same from Bloomberg-BusinesWeek
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by George$ »

Out of curiosity I just checked RIM and FFH for the day.

RIM shares gained 3.1% for the day
FFH (Fairfax) lost 1.7% for the day

I'm guessing that while Fairfax is buying RIM and driving up its price, others are selling FFH (because FFH is buying RIM?) and driving down its price.
Can this be so? :?
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by kcowan »

Good historical perspective on RIM
Covers all the missteps and reasons.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by FinEcon »

George$ wrote:Out of curiosity I just checked RIM and FFH for the day.

RIM shares gained 3.1% for the day
FFH (Fairfax) lost 1.7% for the day

I'm guessing that while Fairfax is buying RIM and driving up its price, others are selling FFH (because FFH is buying RIM?) and driving down its price.
Can this be so? :?
Not to burst your bubble or dent anyone's tinfoil hat but how many days of the last 5yrs has FFH market price fluctuated +/- 2% or so. No need to look it up, that is well within the neigborhhod of noise. Now, if FFH price changed +/- 6-12% or something post RIM annoucemnt that would be worthy of consideration.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by Wallace »

Fighting words from one of RIM's board members! Well worth reading. He argues that big names like Apple and Dell have been in similar circumstances to RIM in the past and the "solutions" that detractors are now demanding for RIM were all disasters for these other companies. He's convinced that RIM is following a better path. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/tec ... in-motion/
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by Bylo Selhi »

Wallace wrote:He argues that big names like Apple and Dell have been in similar circumstances to RIM in the past and the "solutions" that detractors are now demanding for RIM were all disasters for these other companies.
Martin's rejection of "the notion that the board should have hired a star outsider to re-energize RIM – a strategy that, he points out, failed abysmally at other stumbling tech giants, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard and, in its troubled 1980s, the now seemingly flawless Apple" isn't very persuasive.

There are counter-examples. For instance in the early 1990s, when IBM underwent a near-death experience far worse than RIM's current situation, they hired an outsider, Lou Gerstner. At the time there was a lot of hand-wringing over his lack of industry knowledge and lack of vision, etc.(*) yet he managed to turned the business around and reinvent the company. One testament to his success is that Warren Buffet's BRK now owns 10% of IBM.

I'm not saying that RIM should have chosen an outsider but rather that Martin's argument is weak.

Martin's comparison with Apple is also flawed. Jobs hired Sculley but remained an active participant in Apple's management. That led to a power struggle in which he was ousted. Martin's contention with RIM is that Heins, "having joined the company in 2007 and shown he could master both hardware and software operations, emerged as a proven talent with the respect internally to lead the company." The dynamics are much different.

(*) From the Wikipedia entry, "When IBM's board forced chairman and CEO John Fellows Akers to resign, though he would remain in a caretaker role for three months, the directors first looked within the computer industry for his successor. However Apple's John Sculley, Motorola chairman George Fisher, and Bill Gates of Microsoft were not interested (other rumored candidates included Eckhard Pfeiffer of Compaq and Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems), so IBM turned to Gerstner who was an outsider to the field."

And as for the "vision" thing, here's what Gerstner had to say on the subject when he was initially criticised for lacking any, "The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision." Read also what an eminent industry analyst (Bob Djurdjevic) had to say at the time (1994): "The long-awaited "vision statement" by the IBM chairman, Lou Gerstner, turned out to be much ado about nothing.  "The mountain shook, (but only) a mouse was born," an Eastern European proverb says. In a very long speech, full of typical "IBM speak," the IBM boss proved not only that he was no visionary, but that he was no "change agent[1]," either."
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

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Wallace wrote:Fighting words from one of RIM's board members! Well worth reading. He argues that big names like Apple and Dell have been in similar circumstances to RIM in the past and the "solutions" that detractors are now demanding for RIM were all disasters for these other companies. He's convinced that RIM is following a better path. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/tec ... in-motion/
Martin has never run a company let alone been a CEO of a multi-billion dollar outfit.The new chairman Barbara Stymiest was not a star player at RBC either. RIM needs some new talent on the board.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by Bylo Selhi »

Balsillie leaves RIM
The man who was chief spokesman for Research in Motion for many years, Jim Balsillie, is retiring from the BlackBerry maker as it struggles to find its way...
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

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Going, going, GONE!

If you haven't bailed out on this company already, take a lesson from Nortel.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by kcowan »

This is the bounce I expected in the hedge fund contest. Now he has to deliver next quarter!
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by CathyF »

kcowan wrote:This is the bounce I expected in the hedge fund contest. Now he has to deliver next quarter!
Are you crazy?!?
Does this look like a good stock chart to you?

http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&c ... RIM&ntsp=0

:shock:

The only way this company has any value at all, is if they put it up for sale right now, and don't blow any more cash on products they can't deliver and nobody wants.

As much as I hate Apple, and think it's overvalued, I'd rather take a bet on Apple than RIM. Heck, I'd rather take a bet on Lotto 649 than RIM!
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by Pickles »

I understand your thinking, CathyF, but I have bet most of the farm on RIM rising gloriously from the ashes and Apple fading away into oblivion by Dec 31st.

I speak of the FWF hedge fund contest where the more intrepid of us picked two stocks we thought would skyrocket and two stocks we thought would plummet.

It amazes me that I am not in last place. Thank heavens I have not a real penny invested in either!
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by kcowan »

CathyF wrote:As much as I hate Apple, and think it's overvalued, I'd rather take a bet on Apple than RIM. Heck, I'd rather take a bet on Lotto 649 than RIM!
My money is on AAPL and LLL but my emotions are on a RIM recovery even though I have never held the stock. It is the Canadian in me that has me in LLL but it is much more risky than AAPL. I also have held THI since their IPO.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

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kcowan wrote:I also have held THI since their IPO.
Tim's has surprised me. I expected it to do okay after the IPO, but basically just stay the same value and pay out a dividend. I didn't think it had much room left to grow, but they seem to be doing well.

I never really understood why they are held up as a Canadian icon, though. They were owned by Wendy's, then when they went public most of their shares were held by Americans. (I'm not sure if that's still true... American investors may have dumped their shares.) It's kind of like Walmart claiming to be a Canadian icon simply because they sell a lot of stuff here.

I gave up on Tim's when they refused to call their "holiday" mugs, "Christmas mugs". And, when they removed the Canadian flag from the mugs they sell in Quebec. How Canadian can a company be when it caters to separatists?

As for RIM, yes, it's too bad we're losing yet another large tech company. But, there will be others in the future, and hopefully run by better CEOs.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by kcowan »

Seeking Apha wrote:Research In Motion must first release the next-generation products on which its future apparently relies. Will it survive long enough to reap the success that could follow? In the same 2H2012 time frame in which Research In Motion is scheduled to release its first BBv10 products, Microsoft will reportedly release Windows 8 on phones and tablets (including three ARM tablets), Apple will likely release its next smartphone, and Google will enjoy the benefits of having had another six months to improve the ecosystem that currently captures the greatest slice of the mobile market by unit sales.

It's that cutthroat environment - not today's - in which Research In Motion will release its next-generation products. The question is whether, by the time it's available, there will be enough uncommitted market left on which the company can found its next mobile empire.
I thought this was a good synopsis of the short-term challenge facing RIM.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by DanH »

CathyF wrote:I never really understood why they are held up as a Canadian icon, though. They were owned by Wendy's, then when they went public most of their shares were held by Americans. (I'm not sure if that's still true... American investors may have dumped their shares.) It's kind of like Walmart claiming to be a Canadian icon simply because they sell a lot of stuff here.
As for the Canadian label, I suspect it's because the chain was founded by a Canadian-born NHL player, has its head office in Canada and has the vast majority of its stores (and generates the vast majority of its revenues and net income) in this country. As for the "icon" label, I confess that I'm not a big Timmies fan so can't help you there - but people looove their Tims.
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Re: Research in Motion (Symbol-RIM)

Post by CathyF »

If it drops below $10, it might make a good speculative buy if you think Microsoft or someone else will buy it. I don't think there's much value in the business (beyond perhaps another 2-3 years of earnings), but the patents and real-estate might be worth something.
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