Breaking: Co-CEO's Balsillie and Lazaridis Resign from RIM

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO's and chairs of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion have both resigned their position from the beleaguered company. Reports circulating Sunday evening stated that the co-CEO's would step down Monday and effectively be replaced by Thorsten Heins who was previously COO while  Barbara Stymiest, has replaced them as chairwoman of RIM's board. 

Click to read more ...

SourceCode: RIM's Year of Living Dangerously

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

2011 has been Research In Motion’s annus horribilis. The past 12 months, the BlackBerry maker has often found itself in the news and on the defensive for a long list of truly unfortunate and often embarrassing reasons. But how serious is the situation at RIM?

The company was worth more than $70 billion a few years ago and today has a market value of around $8 billion. In 2004, RIM's stock value was $144 a share, when the markets closed Friday it was $13.44 a share.

Click to read more ...

PlayBook discounts to cost RIM US $485 Million

RIM said it has taken a US $485 million hit because of heavy discounts to its BlackBerry PlayBook and as a result expects to miss its financial targets for the year. The October week-long service outage that affected users in various countries also cost the company $50 milliion.

RIM began discounting the PlayBook recently, shaving off $300 from the tablet's price and as a result the devices have been selling steadily. Many hope that with more PlayBooks in the hands of customers that RIM's discounting will pay off for them in the long run.

Brand Finance: Beleaguered BlackBerry Brand loses $1 Billion in value

The latest analysis from Brand Finance plc. demonstrates that most leading Canadian brands are continuing to recover from the recession, with sustained increases in brand value since January. The combined value of the top 10 Canadian brands has now reached $47.3bn. However this is still a billion dollars less than the value of the world's most valuable brand, Google ($48.3bn).

Click to read more ...

RIM cuts 2,000 Jobs, COO Morrison retires

This is the unfortunate news we all knew was coming. RIM has announced that it is cutting 2,000 jobs from its global workforce. Announced in a statement today, the BlackBerry maker stated that the 2,000 jobs represent 11 per cent of its total workforce.  RIM's lack of new smartphone releases in the recent months and the slow but steady sales of its PlayBook tablet have impacted the company's bottom line.

The company also announced that its chief operating officer, Don Morrison, is planning to retire, and that Thorsten Heins is taking on the expanded role of chief operating officer for product and sales. 

"We thank Don for his outstanding service to RIM. We understand and respect his decision to retire after successfully dealing with a serious medical challenge and we wish him a quick recovery," stated Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, Co-CEOs at RIM. "Don's presence at RIM will be missed, but our senior management and sales teams had already stepped up to manage Don's responsibilities since the commencement of his medical leave and we're confident in the ability of those teams to continue Don's tradition of success going forward."

Thorsten Heins is taking on the expanded role of COO (Product and Sales). All product engineering functions, including both hardware and software teams, are being consolidated under Heins' direction.

BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac now available, works with PlayBook

RIM today released the BlackBerry Desktop Software for Mac which works with the PlayBook. The Desktop software is an easy way to transfer and sync media (music, pictures and videos) between your Mac and the PlayBook. File transfer to the PlayBook is already possible through a wireless file sharing but the desktop software is more media specific plus it charges the PlayBook as you sync back and forth.