Comments on: Two very different takes on RIM’s stock

By: Jim Balsillie: market environment ‘Intense’, Bold selling ‘Really Well’ at SmartPhoneCool.com

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 01:46:40 +0000

[...] on the news we posted a few days ago, investors can’t agree on whether RIM is in a prime position for growth or ‘chasing Apple’. However, most [...]

By: Jim Balsillie: market environment ‘Intense’, Bold selling ‘Really Well’ | BlackBerry Cool

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:24:20 +0000

[...] on the news we posted a few days ago, investors can’t agree on whether RIM is in a prime position for growth or ‘chasing Apple’. However, most [...]

By: BR14

BR14 — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:28:13 +0000

One additional comment.

A tech stock analyst that says “why don’t they just improve on the Curve”. Doesn’t he read the news/BlackBerryCool? Wait till he sees the Javelin, he’ll feel such a fool.

Lindzon is uninformed. I wouldn’t want to be paying for his advice.

By: BR14

BR14 — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:19:15 +0000

At it’s height RIMs price made it one of the largest companies in Canada, while in terms of revenue it was around 50th. i.e. probably massively overpriced.

Anyone that thinks RIM is chasing Apple doesn’t understand the technology. RIM may not have quite the glitz of an iPhone (Storm excluded), but their push email backbone is years ahead of Apple.

The fact that RIM supports all the primary wireless technologies (GSM, CDMA etc etc) and is introducing a broad range of products means it will have a significantly greater market to address than can Apple as things stand right now.

By: SM

SM — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:55:25 +0000

Listen folks,
When investors are profit taking , which do you think they will sell first ?
The biggest bang.. so both sold off! Both are great stocks to own…there is enough room for both.
RIM is still the leader. by the time apple catches up, RIMS stake would have planted. Both have great blance sheets, RIM has doubled its net profits. this was seen as negative because they spent more to make more. The big finacial companies who were trying to stay afloat played the peons for fools !

By: Jameel

Jameel — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:05:46 +0000

Fact of the matter is RIM’s sales and net new account activations are falling faster than the drop in markets. RIM is being out-engineered, out performed, out marketed,and out-sold.

But RIM’s biggest problem of all is the billionaire executives have bunkered down and ceased any meaningful, intelligent communications with the rest of the company. As a result, employees have simply stopped caring about the company’s fortunes, and have especially lost confidence in the 2 CEO’s they once held in such high regard.

In one of the most bizarre acts in the history of the company, about 2 weeks ago the employees [and their families] were threatened by the CIO with middle of the night arrests. The prevailing spirit is now fear, not the determination that existed only a year ago.

While RIM employees might have been prepared to buckle down and support a once proud Canadian icon, they probably have little inclination to contribute much to a company that simply taps you on the shoulder and replaces you with a friend of a friend from AT&T.

The point of all this is even if the market rebounds, the employees need to have a reason to turn the ship around. At present, that reason seems quite elusive, job or no job.

By: ghostzapper

ghostzapper — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:55:56 +0000

IMO the current price is not representative of its long term underlying value/growth. Its share price has been slaughtered at a very vulnerable point in time, uncertainty concerning pending product launches, economy, etc. Investor returns are dependent on the success and timeliness of important product launches such as the Storm. I’m hopeful that the Storm is a huge and imminent success.

Disclosure: I own RIM and have increased my weighting recently.

By: crazylegs

crazylegs — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:37:44 +0000

First, I don’t know Howard personally but I do know much about him through a very close contact who is good friends with him and he is nothing more than a momentum trader, so any fundamental analysis should be questioned. Those who look at the iPhone and then say Blackberry isn’t as good and will fall simply misunderstands the dynamics of the market, which is huge, and growing. Both platforms can succeed. What that same person also won’t tell you is that iPhone sells through about 70 carriers while RIM sells into 400 carriers. Distribution matters.