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It's official: RIM (Nasdaq: RIMM ) is my worst call ever.
The company can't do anything right these days. Its first quarter loss was a disgrace, and its delay of Blackberry 10 even more so. BB10 is quickly reaching Duke Nukem Forever levels of vaporware excellence. (All right, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you catch my drift.)
At this point in time, there's only one honorable thing RIM can do for its besieged owners, i.e. you, the common shareholder: Sell itself. Either as a whole, or via an orderly liquidation of core assets.
Take the deal, RIM. It's time to plea this one out.
RIM still has valuable tangible and intangible assets in hand, but it's clear that they're not going to matter as long as RIM is all out by its lonesome, and hemorrhaging cash. The Blackberry platform is mostly obsolete now, and the three-headed Cerberus of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG ) , Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) , and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT ) ain't gonna wait for BB10 to amble out of bed. Jelly Bean, iPhone 5, and Windows 8 Phone are right around the corner.
In tech, it's execute or die. And thus far, RIM has chosen death.
To be honest, I should have known this after listening to last year’s conference call. The then co-CEOs, Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, had fear and self-delusion dripping from their voices. But I ignored that in favor of cold hard numbers.
Note to self: If the conference call sounds like two young perps trying to persuade a cop -- and themselves -- of their innocence, forget about the numbers.
The other thing that got me was how extraordinarily bearish the media was. Normally, when the media all thinks one thing is going to happen, it’s priced in, or they're just plain wrong (*cough* … health care ruling … *cough*). But there's always the exception that proves the rule.
There is such a thing as being too contrarian.
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Report this Comment On June 30, 2012, at 1:37 PM, lucasmonger wrote:
@happypoordays - Not sure what your dig at iOS 6 is for... Apple added a slew of features which when combined with the next phone is almost sure to cause yet another round of long lines and Apple-fanboy upgrades before their contracts are up. It's too early to tell whether they've made a mistake since the OS isn't available to the public yet.
Chances are, the BB10 delays are because of a huge list of software bugs that prove the OS isn't ready for prime time. That's the nature of the software industry.
On the article about RIM itself, I fear that there isn't a company out there willing to buy RIM. So, there is no deal for RIM to take. Microkia doesn't need RIM for anything. Samsung is doing just fine without a RIM acquisition. Googlerola doesn't need RIM. Apple buying RIM would be the stupidest acquisition in the world. I think RIM is going to suffer the same fate as Palm WebOS, Microsoft Zune, Kodak film, Circuit City stores, and Polaroid cameras - disappearance into oblivion.
Report this Comment On July 01, 2012, at 1:12 PM, kel4003 wrote:
I could care less about which phone is better as long as the basic talk and text works. I finally got a new style phone with a touch screen because that was the one I could get free on my cell plan. I use it to check stocks but I dont think I would trust the connection enough to want to trade with it. If I need to do computing I use a computer. I get a sore neck and squinty eyes if I use the phone to read anything.
I ran a straddle on rimm and sold for profit on earnings day. The fact that this company still adamantly chooses to press forward despite the constant degradation by the media struck a chord with me and I have now bought some sep 8 calls
(for dirt cheap). If all this cant break rims spirit, the news can only get better from here. The journalists might have to find some new kid to pick on.
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