CEOs of RIM Step Down 164
An anonymous reader writes "After two decades of leading the BlackBerry maker, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balisillie are stepping down from their roles as Co-CEOs at Canada's Research In Motion Limited. Thorsten Heins will now lead RIM as it attempts to beat the likes of Apple and Google."
Re:Beat? (Score:5, Informative)
"as it attempts to beat the likes of Apple and Google"
A strange choice of words. I think "as it attempts to compete with the likes of..." would be more accurate and desirable - the last thing the technology market needs these days is a single, clearcut winner (at least, if you're a consumer). That aside, as a Canadian I'd like to see RIM survive on its own and if this helps to shake things up then it's a welcome move; I don't fancy the thought of the Samsung chaebol gaining even more power than it already has.
I thought you had made a typo with chaebol but no http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaebol [wikipedia.org]
"Chaebol (from chae: wealth or property + pl: faction or clan)[1] refers to a South Korean form of business conglomerate. They are global multinationals owning numerous international enterprises. The term is often used in a context similar to that of the English word "conglomerate". The term was first used in 1984.[1]"
Re:Marketing (Score:2, Informative)
I have NEVER found anyone that "loved" their blackberry. They were winning simply because they were the only game in town that offered enterprise secure email.
notice they started their nosedive when they handed over the keys to Saudia Arabia. Their claims of "uncrackable" went out the window.
The other nosedive started with Iphone 3s and CEO's started carrying them. they did not want to carry 2 phones, so they ditched the clunky crackberry. Once that happens, it's game over.
Re:Too late? (Score:5, Informative)
> Kodak board: Hm, there's been some serious financial reporting. We'd better
> fire the person telling us about it.
*cough* that was Olympus. Kodak's board does seem clueless, but not evil.
"No-one wants it" (Score:4, Informative)
To succeed in this area, they need marketing.
I find it interesting that a number of people responding to my post simply don't understand why marketing is so important. I ask one question: How did Apple survive when it was in the doldrums and the products were pretty crap? Users were made to believe that there was a plan, and made to feel that in some way they had bought into a company that was going places. That was marketing, pure and simple.
Re:Too late? (Score:5, Informative)
Oh, it's WAY more than a year too late. Maybe 5 or so.
Of course, Microsoft is setting an absolutely terrible example for the industry. They should have at least demoted the dancing monkey way more than 5 years ago.
I disagree. Microsoft's stock may have been stagnant over the last decade, but its also payed out an enormous amount of money in dividends. Ballmer wasn't holding the reins when the big drop in the stock happened during the dot-com bubble bursting, and the thing that Microsoft got out of it was a firm transition from a "tech" stock to a solid blue-chip stock. The type of investors who buy those securities are very different, and the responsibility of the board and CEO are very different. Microsoft showing solid revenue growth, relative stock price stability and consistent payment of dividends *is* what the stockholders expect. It means everything needs to be more conservative.
Contract that to Apple -- their stock graph, while steadily rising over time, has a sharp sawtooth pattern to it with quick-flip investors sinking billions into it, catching that wave. (I invested a pretty decent amount into Apple two years ago and have nearly *quadrupled* the amount by riding the sawtooth up!) But that pattern doesn't make Apple a better company or a better investment. I've got a lot of Microsoft stock, too -- that stock I'm equally happy with. I *expect* the Apple stock to crash. The investing pattern I follow (and clearly most investors are following, based on those cycles) is exactly that. We all *know* their value is based on transient hype, and not a solid foundation. Thats why people keep pulling money out, waiting out peak and buying back in the dip! The Microsoft stock, on the other hand, I know I'll get a steady return from and never really even consider selling.
For both of those, as an investor in both companies, I'm very happy with both Jobs' job and Ballmers' job.
Re:Too late? (Score:5, Informative)
I don't understand your definition of "enormous amount of money in dividends". Their last dividend of was 20 cents/share or projecting forward 80 cents a year.
Their stock price has been around 25 to 30 dollars a share, to be generous lets call it $25 (for comparing the payout).
$0.80 / $25 = is a 3.2% return on the dividends, that is with the highest payout in 2011 and the lowest stock price. I would not be looking at Microsoft as a blue-chip stock in anyway or form.
Re:Marketing (Score:2, Informative)
Uhh, no. The Obamaberry only looks like one. It is manufactured by General Dynamics and contains a class one crypto unit.
Uhh, no. Obama was a crackberry addict long before he ever became POTUS. Once he was elected, they considered forcing him to accept GD the milspec WinMo phone, but BHO kept his blackberry because he's POTUS and there's nobody who can tell him he can't.
He probably doesn't use it for any official business, and may well have an aide carrying one of those GD phones for when the shit hits the fan.
Re:Too late? (Score:4, Informative)
Funny you should say that - I just got the Bold 9900 through my work and I'd say it's one of the best phones I've used. Ridiculously high build quality, silky smooth menus, excellent touch screen, convenience of a really nice physical keyboard, good size, intuitive menus, etc etc etc. Battery life seems good too by current gen standards. And of course as with most blackberries it's excellent for email and productivity generally. It's also made from a nice lump of metal and feels like it could be used as a deadly weapon.
Absolutely beats the hell out of other current gen phones I've used, including the iphone, Galaxy S II and my current personal phone (an HTC running android 2.3).
So I would say the sad thing for RIM is that they are probably going to fall apart just at the moment when they have finally caught up to (and arguably overtaken) the market...