|
Balsillie and Lazardis resign...
|
View this Thread in Original format
| jchung52 |
| quote: | | Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the co-chief executives of Research In Motion Ltd., have stepped down as heads of the Waterloo, Ont.-based technology company. According to a news release issued Sunday, RIM's board of directors unanimously named former chief operating officer Thorsten Heins as president and CEO on the advice of Balsillie and Lazaridis. "There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership," Lazaridis said. "Jim and I went to the board and told them that we thought that time was now." RIM has faced intense pressure from shareholders for months to change its management structure amid concerns the company is unable to compete with rivals Apple Inc. and Google Inc. 'I am so confident in RIM's future that I intend to purchase an additional $50 million of the company's shares'—Mike Lazaridis The company, maker of the BlackBerry series of smartphones and tablets, was the most valuable company in Canada as recently as 2008 when its stock reached $148, but after a series of missteps the company has seen its share of the smartphone market dwindle. The share price closed on Friday at $17.24. According to the company, Lazaridis is now the vice-chair of the company's board of directors as well as chair of its new innovation committee. Balsillie will remain a member of RIM's board of directors. "I agree this is the right time to pass the baton to new leadership, and I have complete confidence in Thorsten, the management team and the company," Balsillie said. "I remain a significant shareholder and a director and, of course, they will have my full support." Thorsten Heins, who joined Research In Motion four years ago, was named CEO and president of the technology company.Thorsten Heins, who joined Research In Motion four years ago, was named CEO and president of the technology company. (Research In Motion/Canadian Press) Heins joined RIM four years ago from Siemens AG, becoming a senior vice-president. He was appointed chief operating officer for product and sales in August 2011. Lazaridis said Heins has the right mix of leadership, industry experience and skills to take the company forward. "We have been impressed with his operational skills at both RIM and Siemens," he said. "I am so confident in RIM's future that I intend to purchase an additional $50 million of the company's shares, as permitted, in the open market." Among other changes at the top of RIM, current director and former Toronto Stock Exchange CEO Barbara Stymiest will become independent board chair and Fairfax Financial Holdings CEO Prem Watsa will join the board. Big slide in 2011 Balsillie and Lazaridis, who shared the CEO and chair titles, have headed RIM together for the past two decades. The company took a big slide in 2011, dropping behind its peers in the lightning-paced smartphone market, suffering through the worst service outage in its history and losing tens of billions of dollars in market value. And the PlayBook tablet, RIM's answer to the Apple iPad, failed to gain consumer support and the company was forced to give it deep discounts to help move the devices off store shelves. The company announced that it will take a $485-million US charge before tax on the cost of discounting the price of its PlayBook tablet and $50 million in lost revenues from an October service outage that affected millions of BlackBerry email and text users. It was forced to cut 2,000 jobs to keep costs in line. In December, RIM reported third-quarter net profits of $265 million US, well below the $911 million for the same period a year before. That came despite the sale of millions more BlackBerrys than in 2010 and a 35 per cent rise in global subscribers to 75 million. Many investors held Balsillie and Lazaridis responsible for the company's problems and previously called for them to be replaced and also for the company to be sold or broken up. |
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/sto...ie.html?cmp=rss
:wtf: |
|
|
| Mach X |
| I'd still buy the stock, interested to see what it opens and closes at on Monday... |
|
|
| jester |
| I think that is a little to late. |
|
|
| Skipper |
I think there is definitely break up value in the company, but it would never have been realized with those two at the helm. This will at least provide investors some hope for something more radical to happen.
That said, the new guy has been working with the two now ex-CEOs for a few years already - he's not much of an outsider.
I used to cover a company that eventually booted out its CEO. Stock was up over 10% as soon as it was announced. I'd expect something similar today at the open - have you seen how investors have jumped in every time there is a takeover rumor? |
|
|
| feelgood |
| Id expect a small jump (5-10pts) based on the fact that its a glimmer of opportunity for RIMM, and itll pique investor interest. However, i give them three months to make a significant announcement/release before investor interest wanes once again. |
|
|
| patpicos |
so far the stock is down today by ~ 7%.
My fear with the move is that they picked an internal candidate which will be closely paired w/ the outgoing CEOs. It doesn't feel like a huge change in direction will occur. Time will tell.
I would have preferred an external that would have a fresh look and not bogged down by internal history. |
|
|
| Orko |
| Pundits have stated that RIM should sell off its mobile arm. If they do, what else do they have? I have no idea what RIM does outside of Blackberries, and their related services. |
|
|
| jchung52 |
| quote: | Originally posted by devnull
so far the stock is down today by ~ 7%.
My fear with the move is that they picked an internal candidate which will be closely paired w/ the outgoing CEOs. It doesn't feel like a huge change in direction will occur. Time will tell.
I would have preferred an external that would have a fresh look and not bogged down by internal history. |
True but he's only been with RIM for four years. Perhaps his experience with Siemens will bring more to the table? I think the best route for RIM is focus on the small business/corporate world. I have one for work and there is no doubt its a great work phone. Emails instant, little data usage, better typing with keyboard, and having my playbook bridged with the phone works great with no complaints. I think switching gears to business related will alow them to develop a new consumer product that will be competitive. More R & D and market analysis. Don't rush a new set of phones 2-3x a year that basically do the same operation as the previous (this is where I think they failed and lost a lot of ground).
Not everyone likes a touchscreen phone (such as myself) but then again most apps use a touch based operation. The new bold I think will keep RIM afloat till what might come about of this new direction. Growing up in Waterloo and watching RIM grow from a 20 person operation to what it did was great. I have a friend who has worked there from pretty much the beginning and has 4 or 5 patents to his name. So I guess what I'm saying is, I'm a RIM supporter and have overlooked the faults in the last couple yrs but I haven't really had much to complain about. My Tour has worked fine last 3 yrs. My Bold (work phone) I've had since last year and no issues. My Playbook does what I need to for work (with the big discount, more apps will be released so I'm not too worried). Only problem I've had with RIM was the outage last year. Teaching Lazaridis' son violin I guess gives me a personal connection too. Anyways, come on RIM. I hope this move will turn it around. Hopefully not too late |
|
|
| Moral Hazard |
| quote: | Originally posted by Orko
Pundits have stated that RIM should sell off its mobile arm. If they do, what else do they have? I have no idea what RIM does outside of Blackberries, and their related services. |
Selling off the mobile arm means selling the smartphone and tablet hardware side of things. The thinking is that RIM could then focus on the networking/software side of things. Everyone thinks of RIM as Blackberries but they draw huge revenues from QNX's operating systems for everything from mars rovers to navagation systems, Enterprise software/servers, and the network systems they use for BBM, etc. If RIM could make Enterprise, BBM and the security/data compression features that made Blackberry so popular available across platforms that could be a huge cash cow for them... spinning off the hardware portion of the business would remove the incentive to keep the networking and software products proprietary and thereby increase the market for same. |
|
|
| hax-a-million |
some changes with the board of directors too, which could bode well. also mandatory chip-in from kevin o'leary, haha
(taken from the same cbc article but i think it's been edited/added to since the OP started the thread)
| quote: | [i][b] Among other changes at the top of RIM, current director and former Toronto Stock Exchange CEO Barbara Stymiest will become independent board chair and Fairfax Financial Holdings CEO Prem Watsa will join the board.
"It's good to have Prem Watsa onside," Kanade said. Watsa runs Fairfax Financial, which with almost 12 million shares, is the second-largest holder of RIM stock outside the two founders. "[Watsa] knows how it works, so he doesn't want too many changes at the same time," Kanade said.
CBC News business commentator Kevin O'Leary said he expects the new board will give Heins about a year to show results, at which point they may turn to someone new. "At the board level, this forces the debate on what to do next," he said.
"As an investor … I'd say to myself this can only result in better times ahead." |
|
|
|
| Orko |
So this guy was chief technology officer of Siemens’ Communications Division. Not exactly small potatoes. Siemens is MASSIVE.
This will be interesting to watch. I wonder what the pay bump is? |
|
|
| ChemEnhanced |
Thorsten Heins - Chief Operating officer of Product and Sales
ANNUAL COMPENSATION*
Salary $575,619
Total Annual Compensation $575,619
STOCK OPTIONS*
Restricted Stock Awards $824,515
Total Number of Options 50,000
TOTAL COMPENSATION*
Total Annual Cash Compensation $1,086,220
Total Short Term Compensation $575,619
Other Long Term Compensation $824,515
Total Calculated Compensation $1,922,642
Jim Balsillie - Co-Chief Executive Officer
ANNUAL COMPENSATION*
Salary $1,175,664
Total Annual Compensation $1,175,664
STOCK OPTIONS*
Restricted Stock Awards $2,708,340
All Other Compensation $10,777
Exercised Options Value $3,628,503
Total Value of Options $4,697,575
Total Number of Options 230,000
TOTAL COMPENSATION*
Total Annual Cash Compensation $2,391,202
Total Short Term Compensation $1,175,664
Other Long Term Compensation $2,719,117
Total Calculated Compensation $5,112,128 |
|
|
|
|
