RIM launches strategic review as nosedive continues

BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion has reported a 19% revenue decline and a $125 million loss for its most recent financial quarter, prompting more executive resignations and a strategic review for the company.

RIM co-founder Jim Basillie, who stepped down as co-CEO after its last financial report, has resigned from the company altogether. CTO David Yach has retired while chief operating officer Jim Rowan will be "pursuing other interests", the company announced.

Thorsten Heins, CEO of RIM since January, said that the company will now carry out a strategic review that will consider options including potential partnerships and joint ventures.

On a conference call with investment analyst, Heins said that selling of all or part of the company was not "the main direction we are pressing right now," but that that it might be considered if the strategic review "led us in that direction".

Heins said that RIM would be looking to partnerships and joint ventures to address the consumer and bring-your-own-device market, and would be re-focusing its own energies on its enterprise business.

"We were delayed to the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) movement and we saw a significant slowing down in our enterprise subscriber growth rate as a result," he said. "I am committed with my team to reclaiming lost market share in this space."

Heins told investment analysts that the company hopes to promote BlackBerry 10, the company’s new operating system due for launch later this year, as a platform for mobile computing. "With BB10, we’re getting ready for not just a smartphone launch, we’re getting ready for a mobile computing platform for the next decade," he said.

RIM shipped 11 million smartphones in Q4 2011, down from 15 million in the same quarter in 2010. According to analyst company Gartner’s latest figures, the overall smartphone market increased 47% by shipments over that period.

Gartner found that RIM now holds less than 10% of the smartphone market by operating system.

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Ben Rossi

Ben was Vitesse Media's editorial director, leading content creation and editorial strategy across all Vitesse products, including its market-leading B2B and consumer magazines, websites, research and...

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