RIM to cut 2,000 jobs amid intense smartphone competition

[nhl2007]

Published On Thu Jul 28 2011
David Friend
The Canadian Press

Disgruntled investors erected a protest sign outside the Research in Motion annual meeting in Waterloo, Ontario, on July 12, 2011. The company says it will cut around 2,000 jobs this year.

DAVE CHIDLEY/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Research In Motion says it will cut about 2,000 jobs worldwide in an effort to save money amid an increasingly competitive smartphone and tablet market.

The BlackBerry maker provided the details on Monday, about a month after first revealing it would reduce its workforce by an unspecified number of jobs.

The job cuts are the largest in the Canadian technology icon’s history and come after several years of rapid global growth and expansion.

“The workforce reduction is believed to be a prudent and necessary step for the long-term success of the company,” RIM said in a statement before stock markets opened for the week.

“It follows an extended period of rapid growth within the company whereby the workforce had nearly quadrupled in the last five years alone.”

RIM (TSX: RIM), based in Waterloo, Ont., currently has about 19,000 employees across its operations so the latest cuts amount to 11 per cent of the workforce, much of which is located in southwestern Ontario where the company started.

Employees based in North America will begin to receive their notices this week, while those in most other countries will be told at a later date, the company said.

Any severance payments or other charges related to the job cuts are not included in RIM’s second-quarter and full-year outlook.

RIM is facing off against a host of new competition in the smartphone market with the emergence of Apple’s iPhone and smartphones with Google’s Android operating system.

The flurry of recent competitors has hurt its share in the important U.S. market.

RIM’s PlayBook tablet, which met expectations of selling 500,000 in the recent quarter, has received lukewarm reviews compared with Apple’s iPad.

The company responded by launching a plan to reduce its costs, and started with a small number of layoffs in its hometown. RIM laid off an estimated 200 employees in Waterloo in late June, though the company declined to confirm the number.

RIM said it expects to provide more information on the latest round of layoffs when the company reports fiscal second-quarter results Sept. 15.

In early trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange, RIM’s shares were down 60 cents, or 2.3 per cent, at $25.87.

Queen’s University School professor John Pliniussen said RIM has to reduce costs, increase revenues and change its business model all at the same time, which Apple is already doing.

“RIM is focusing on the first now, has been trying to do the second, but really needs to get new senior talent in to do the third,” said Pliniussen, who specializes in technology and business innovation at the university’s business school in Kingston, Ont.

The technology company is also making changes to its executive lineup that will give more responsibilities to certain people.

Former Siemens Communications executive Thorsten Heins will take an expanded role of chief operating officer that includes all product engineering functions.

His broader responsibilities come as the company announces that current COO Don Morrison plans to retire after taking a temporary medical leave last month.

The company said that Heins’ new role “is expected to both produce greater efficiencies and help accelerate new product introductions in the future.”

Chief information officer Robin Bienfait will handle the expanded responsibility of overseeing the business enterprise unit.

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1030016--rim-to-cut-2-000-jobs



RIM Announces 2,000 Jobs to Be Cut

July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities LLC, talks about Research In Motion Ltd.'s management and the outlook for the company. The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone plans to cut 2,000 jobs, or about a tenth of its workforce, as sales slow amid market share losses to Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Gauna speaks with Emily Chang and Cory Johnson on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg)

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/73041694/

 

[锐不可当的三]

大厦将倾！

弟兄们，小心了。

 

[Jingle]

这是新闻吗？ 不是两个星期还是三个星期前就宣布了吗？

 

[nhl2007]

Sprint drops plans to carry RIM’s 4G PlayBook

omar el akkad
Globe and Mail Update
Published Friday, Aug. 12, 2011 4:37PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Aug. 12, 2011 7:17PM EDT


One of Research In Motion’s major carrier partners has dropped plans to carry the new version of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, raising concerns there isn’t enough preliminary interest in the product.

Sprint confirmed Friday it will not carry the cellular-equipped version of the PlayBook, due out this fall, on its high-speed network. Like other carriers, Sprint will continue to carry the Wi-Fi-only model currently in stores.

Sprint was quick to claim that the decision would have no effect on the relationship between the carrier and RIM (RIM-T24.290.321.34%), adding that it still carries more BlackBerry products than any other U.S. carrier.

“This was a mutual decision between Sprint and RIM,” Sprint spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein said in an e-mail to the Globe and Mail. “I would discourage you from speculating that it has to do with interest or sales.”

RIM said in a statement Friday that it has decided to prioritize its 4G development resources on “Long-Term Evolution,” a next-generation network technology.

“We remain excited and committed to delivering innovative and powerful 4G tablets to the U.S. market together with our carrier partners,” the company said. “Testing of BlackBerry 4G PlayBook models is already underway and we plan to enter labs for network certifications in the U.S. and other international markets this fall.”

The cancellation is especially embarrassing for RIM because Sprint was the company’s hallmark partner for the upcoming 4G PlayBook. As early as January, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, RIM announced Sprint would be the carrier for the cellular-equipped version, which was due out in the summer but has since been delayed until the fall. The 4G model would include many of the features critics complained were lacking in the Wi-Fi-only model, such as built-in e-mail and calendar functions.

The 4G PlayBook was also supposed to solve one of RIM’s biggest issues with the tablet – prior to the introduction of the cellular model, there was less incentive for carriers to stock and sell the PlayBook, because they couldn’t make recurring revenue from the tablets in the form of data plans.

This year has been difficult for RIM, which has seen its stock price plummet as a result of product delays and profit warnings. Last month, the company announced plans to lay off 10 per cent of its work force. This month, RIM unveiled three new smart phone models it hopes will re-energize sales. A 4G PlayBook was also expected this fall; however, it is unclear whether Sprint’s decision not to carry the tablet will further delay its launch.

Since the introduction of the iPad last year, and its follow-up this year, Apple (AAPL-Q376.993.290.88%) has essentially dominated the tablet market, making it very difficult for competitors such as RIM to establish a foothold. Recent market share data suggests Apple’s total control of the consumer tablet arena may be softening a little, but not as a result of increased PlayBook sales. According to a recent report by ABI Research, tablets powered by Google’s Android operating system have snatched as much as 20 per cent of the market from Apple’s devices in the last 12 months. Still, no individual Android tablet manufacturer comes close to threatening the iPad.

RIM shipped approximately 500,000 PlayBook during its first fiscal quarter. During Apple’s most recent fiscal quarter, the company sold 9.25 million iPads.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ans-to-carry-rims-4g-playbook/article2128238/