RIM Shareholders Call For Change

Its not to anyone’s surprise that RIM’s stock this year has been less than stellar. Rumors of the company selling its self to another tech giant have been circulating for quite some time now. In addition, key personnel have left the company to pursue other endeavors. The results of all this are that shareholders are becoming more restless as they continue to see their shares fall.

Now shareholders are beginning to become more vocal about their investments with BlackBerry maker RIM. In a letter to the board, Vic Albioni head of Jaguar Financial, an investor in RIM, expressed his frustrations with the company, and added some pretty bold suggestions.

“The status quo is not acceptable, the company cannot sit still,” Vic Alboini, said in a statement. “It is time for transformational change. The directors need to seize the reins to maximize shareholder value before more market value is lost.”

Jaguar Financial holds about 5% of RIM, and is getting tired of the of RIM’s lack of performance, and strategic delays

.“RIM’s chronic underperformance and repeated delays in executing its strategy have led Jaguar to the conclusion that fundamental change at RIM is required,”

Some of these fundamental changes proposed by Jaguar Financial was the urge for RIM to sell, and the consideration of selling of some of their patents. These are some pretty bold statements, and it seems to be what many consider to be the route that RIM should go. Is this really true considering that RIM actually had reported a good financial report last quarter? Only time will tell. However the more important question seems to be. Does this kind of frustration represent the vast majority of RIM shareholders?

The news hasn’t been all negative for RIM this year. Let’s not forget that they recently had a successful launch of their new line of OS 7 devices. The PlayBook, despite its critics, is actually one of the highest grade tablets on the market today. The future of RIM looks very promising. RIM is currently working on a new line of QNX based phones that show promise of setting the standards for mobile devices to come. RIM has also embraced Android integration within these QNX based devices, which shows they understand the importance of consumer wants.

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