Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

RIM Makes Management Changes, Just Not the Ones Many Have Been Calling For

As part of a restructuring announced on Monday, RIM is making a number of changes to the roles and responsibilities of those in its upper management.

However, the company made no changes to the piece of the org chart that has gotten the most criticism — the fact that Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis both serve as co-chairman and co-chief executive.

In addition, RIM announced only one executive departure as part of the restructuring — the retirement of COO Don Morrison, who has been on medical leave since last month.

“Investors may have been expecting or hoping for a bit more turnover in the senior executive ranks,” Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt said in a research note on Monday. That said, McCourt took some solace in what RIM didn’t say on Monday.

“At this point, any time RIM makes a public statement and doesn’t bring down guidance, we take it as at least a modest positive,” McCourt said.

Meanwhile, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky noted that the moves “appear more adjustments than fundamental management reorganizations, and leave senior management unaffected.”

However, he said that the 2,000 layoffs, which represent about 10 percent of the company’s workforce, are more significant. On a percentage basis, he said, the moves are greater than those undertaken at Nokia and leave RIM with more revenue per employee than Google, Motorola and Nokia (though less than Apple.)

RIM shares were trading on Monday morning at $27.00, down 91 cents, or three percent, though it should be noted that it is a generally down day with most tech stocks in the red.

And, in case you were wondering, that image is a replica of a deck chair from the Titanic, as seen on display at the Nova Scotia Museum.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

Another gadget you don’t really need. Will not work once you get it home. New model out in 4 weeks. Battery life is too short to be of any use.

— From the fact sheet for a fake product entitled Useless Plasticbox 1.2 (an actual empty plastic box) placed in L.A.-area Best Buy stores by an artist called Plastic Jesus