RIM Deathwatch: Annual Meeting Shows Management Still In Denial

Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) is acting like the next Palm.  They are dying.  The company’s CEO has said that RIM and the formerly great Blackberry operating system is not in the midst of a death spiral.  It is not that he is intentionally wrong.  He is just in denial.

At the annual meeting on Tuesday, the shares are down yet again with a loss of 4.8% at $7.30 against a 52-week range of $7.14 to $33.54.

The reality is that it was not an accident that we named RIM as a brand which will die in 2013. The reality is that it is working itself into a position where it may still have millions of customers but it makes itself obsolete except to a few.  It may be easier in 2014 and beyond to find professionals with cigarettes in their pockets than it is to find them with a Blackberry smartphone.

The Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android phones and the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone are just too much competition now.

As far as what management has to say about video conference capabilities, a board shakeup, no Chinese manufacturing due to security risks, selling a corporate jet, and even ‘evaluating alternatives’… It just doesn’t matter. The board of directors was re-elected today but the number of withheld votes did not exactly resemble any overwhelming approval from the shareholders.

RIM’s management team needs to learn simply to just not speak.  The situation at RIM is widely known to be bad.  Just ask one of the recently fired workers. Unfortunately, this management team is becoming an expert of making everyone find out things are worse than expected.

JON C. OGG