balsillie
Latest
RIM announces Q4 2012 earnings, Jim Balsillie resigns from board, company plans to refocus on enterprise
We've already seen a bit of big news slip out ahead of RIM's earnings announcement, and the company's now dropped another bombshell itself. Former co-CEO Jim Balsillie has resigned from his position on the company's board of directors. In a statement, Balsillie said simply: "As I complete my retirement from RIM, I'm grateful for this remarkable experience and for the opportunity to have worked with outstanding professionals who helped turn a Canadian idea into a global success." RIM also confirmed that CTO David Yach would be retiring as well, and that COO Jim Rowan has "decided to pursue other interests," but it hasn't offered any indication of a broader shakeup beyond those three departures. As for the fourth quarter earnings, RIM is reporting revenue of $4.2 billion, down 19 percent from the third quarter, and a GAAP net loss of $125 million. Total BlackBerry shipments for the quarter dipped 21 percent to 11.1 million units, while PlayBook shipments totaled 500,000, which is actually a new high water mark for the tablet (1.3 million were shipped during the fiscal year). This is also notably the company's first quarterly earnings under the leadership of new CEO Thorsten Heins, who admits that the RIM faces some "significant" business challenges over the "next several quarters," and says that he's "taking the necessary steps to address them." That includes "increased management accountability and process discipline," as well as what he describes as a "comprehensive review of strategic opportunities including partnerships and joint ventures, licensing, and other ways to leverage RIM's assets and maximize value for our stakeholders." On the company's earnings call, Heins further added that he intends to refocus on the company's enterprise business, and not try to be "all things to all people." He went on to offer an even more frank assessment of RIM's current state than he had earlier, stating that these are "difficult times" and that there's "no guarantee of success," while also adding that he's open to exploring "all opportunities." That includes the possibility of licensing BB10 which, incidentally, will apparently address the company's current LTE deficit "later this year." Asked on the call whether he would consider getting out of the hardware business altogether, Heins says that he prefers an "integrated" approach, but left the door open a little to that being done through partnerships instead of completely in-house -- he also repeatedly noted that he wants RIM devices to be high-end, "aspirational" products. In short: the company's focus now is on BB10 and enterprise, but it's seemingly leaving just about everything on the table.
Financial Post report suggests RIM's Balsillie and Lazaridis may be out as chairmen of the board
Nothing is official just yet, but Canada's Financial Post is reporting that RIM co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis may soon be relinquishing their positions as co-chairmen of the company's board. According to the paper's sources, RIM board member and former TSX Group head Barbara Stymeist is the leading candidate to replace the duo. Notably, the report makes no suggestion that there would be any change to Balsillie and Lazaridis' status as co-CEOs, as some have also been pushing for, although it would still be a fairly big change for the company. As the paper notes, Balsillie and Lazaridis have long resisted previous attempts to divide the Chairmen and CEO roles and, if appointed, Stymeist would be the company's first ever independent chair.
CEOs discuss Apple at Web 2.0 Summit
While the Web 2.0 Summit was under way from Nov. 15 through Nov. 17, there were a few inevitable pot shots at Apple from attending chief executive officers. This isn't really a surprise with the ongoing growth of Apple and Apple's overall value, but it's definitely interesting to see what those CEOs felt needed to be said. Shantanu Narayen is the CEO of Adobe Systems, and he told the Web 2.0 Summit audience that "there's a war happening for developers, there's a war to get the best applications for a particular platform." Narayen considered the conflict between Apple and Adobe to be an issue of control and that the two companies are on different sides of that line. When asked to define how Narayen saw the two sides of the conflict, he was willing to explain. "Apple would like to keep [the web ecosystem] closed and proprietary," claimed the Adobe CEO. Narayen opined that Apple wants to "ensure that applications created for the iDevices only work on the iDevices if they're native applications." By contrast, Narayen claimed that Adobe would prefer to create content across all the web and mobile platforms. As if that weren't enough, Narayen's finished off that depiction by declaring, "Let the games begin!" Jim Balsillie, who is a co-CEO of Research in Motion, was a little more direct when comparing Apple's iOS devices to the Blackberry. In a soundbite that's likely to be heard around the world, Balsillie said that users "don't need an app for the web." He claimed that RIM's upcoming tablet, the PlayBook, would be up to four times faster for browsing than the iPad. Balsillie felt that the "appification" of the web shouldn't be necessary and that websites shouldn't need to convert to some kind of mobile version to be accessed. Even more importantly, Balsillie predicted later in his Web 2.0 Summit discussion that the "appification" would soon be reversed, and that the era of the app would be passing soon. Check out the videos for yourself in the second half of this post. [via TechCrunch and The Telegraph]
Jim Balsillie says BlackBerry PlayBook has a 'module cavity,' hints at NFC capabilities
He unfortunately didn't have one on hand (or at least on stage), but RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie did make a bit of news about the BlackBerry PlayBook at the now-happening Web 2.0 Summit. The first is that the tablet packs what Balsillie described as a "module cavity" -- the most obvious use for which would be to add WWAN capabilities to the WiFi-only model (something Balsillie himself suggested), although the possibilities certainly extend far beyond that. Balsillie also later mused a bit about NFC capabilities, stating that "we'd be fools not to have it in the near-term, and we are not fools." That's obviously in relation to BlackBerry phones in general and not just the PlayBook, but it does seem like a prime candidate for that aforementioned "module cavity," which we really hope is not the final name.
RIM's co-CEO Balsillie stepping down from board as part of backdating settlement
Remember that settlement RIM reached with the Ontario Securities Commission yesterday? Well, details of the arrangement have emerged, and Reuters is reporting that in addition to over $90 million CAD being repaid, the company's co-CEO will be stepping down from its executive board as part of the deal. Jim Balsillie will reportedly have to fork over $5 million CAD (~$4.1 million USD) and his position on the board for at least 12 months -- though we're not sure if he intends to return (or if he'll be welcomed back). [Via BlackBerry Cool]
One RIM CEO pans iPhone while the other pans Windows Mobile
Wow, it's pretty tough to knock these dudes off their high horses, isn't it? RIM's generally held a flippant attitude toward Apple's and Microsoft's mobile efforts -- an attitude that's at least partially justified thanks to the company's immense success in corporate channels and with many, many carriers, granted, but you'd think they'd at least pretend to respect their adversaries. In recent chats with media, one of RIM's two CEOs, Mike Lazaridis, said that the iPhone has "severe limitations" resulting from its virtual keyboard, reminding reporters that real phones have real keyboards and pointing to Palm's licensing of RIM's keyboard design for its Treo series. He went on to thank the iPhone for drawing consumers' collective attention to smartphones -- attention that he's apparently figuring RIM can steal once customers are in carriers' shops with cash in hand. Meanwhile, RIM's other CEO Jim Balsillie went on record saying that he doesn't believe Windows Mobile is a "big competitor" to their business, a bold statement considering that Microsoft's mobile platform continues to become more enterprise-focused with efforts like Mobile Device Manager. Don't get too comfortable, fellas![Via Smartphone Thoughts]
RIM's Jim Balsillie to buy Nashville Predators
RIM's doing just fine thanks to a host of new models, but the same can't be said for its embattled CEO. First he loses his bid to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins, then he loses his chairmanship -- but things might just be turning around for Jim Balsillie. Word on the street is that Nashiville Predators owner Craig Leipold has turned the keys to the club over to Balsillie with an official announcement scheduled for tomorrow. Though there's a guarantee in place that the Predators will stick around for the next season, RIM's hometown has been pining after an NHL franchise for some time. Could this be the Predators' swan song in Nashville? Will the state of Tennessee write off BlackBerrys as evil devices for ever and ever? Only time'll tell.[Thanks, Boy Genius]
RIM exec picks up hockey club
What's a surefire sign that your company has survived scandal, moving on to become one of the predominant players in wireless communications, enterprise messaging, and hot phones with trackballs? Your CEO buys a sports franchise, that's what. In what can only be described as a proudly Canadian thing to do, Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM CEO Jim Balsillie recently scooped up the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins for a cool $175 million from previous owner Mario Lemieux and pals. Though Balsillie and the NHL sound committed to keeping the team in Pittsburgh, it seems fitting that Hamilton, Ontario -- not too far from RIM's Waterloo -- is in search of an NHL franchise itself. We'll try not to get too wrapped up in the conspiracy theories, though; Balsillie's folks back at the RIM camp make enough on-topic news without us branching into the wide world of sports.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
RIM CEO reveals upcoming BlackBerry features
Well, we can't say for sure whether Palm and RIM are going to merge tomorrow (though we obviously have a pretty strong inkling that they won't), but if nothing else RIM's co-CEO James Balsillie did let some interesting information slip today at the C3 expo. Namely, he spoke about how apparently BlackBerry devices should soon have a slew of features never really known in RIM handsets, such as MP3 playback from external memory expansion, "image capture," (which we're taking to mean a freaking integrated digital camera), and even integrated GPS. We're not saying BlackBerrys wouldn't be capable or nothin', but we all know what a serious overhaul these devices would have to undergo in order to make some of these features really shine (especially GPS), let alone to really prep them for mass market appeal. But either way here's to hoping some of this stuff will show up in the Stealth (or sooner).[Via BBHub]
