RIM to announce Second Quarter Fiscal 2012 results on September 15, 2011

 

With the market being as crazy as it has been the past few weeks, and the ever watchful eye set on RIM stock, this Second Quarter Fiscal 2012 results call should be rather interesting. Kevin, and his whole one share of RIMM stock I’m sure will be tuned in so that may mean we’ll live blog it just in case they make an unexpected announcements, not very likely but you never know. Sidenote: Kinda funny they mention you can listen on your BlackBerry PlayBook.

Press Release

Carriers seeking an alternative to Apple, Google may turn back to BlackBerry

Research In Motion will benefit in the near term from the ongoing launch of its new BlackBerry 7 smartphones, which are being described as the vendor’s strongest devices in some time. Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu upgraded his rating on RIM stock to Buy from Neutral, increasing his price target to $35 from $28. Wu sees near-term opportunity in RIM, and he thinks new BlackBerry handsets like the Bold 9900 will be well received. ”The key differences this time include a refined user interface and improved hardware including faster processors, better graphics and displays as well as better build quality with its greater use of premium materials,” Wu wrote on Friday. “The company recently launched the new Bold 9900 and Torch 9810 and we see the upcoming launch of the full touchscreen Torch and new lower-end Curve in upcoming 1-2 quarters as future catalysts. RIMM has undoubtedly lost some customers but for loyalists still using 2-3 year old models, these refined updates are a worthy upgrade.” Read on for more.

Does This Mutual Fund Manager Know Something Analysts Don’t?

With all the doom and gloom coming from some financial analysts Gokulesh pointed out an interesting change in the last quarter. The Street is reporting that “The Yacktman Fund’s Donald Yacktman, The the mutual-fund manager with the best record in the past 10 years” has taken out a large stake in RIM during the second quarter. The Yachtman Fund has purchased 1.5 million shares of RIMM stock worth $43.3 million during the second quarter… They have also purchased quite a few shares of other companies that are being hammered on the stock market including Cisco, HP, Microsoft and News Corp.

It seems like not everybody is buying the “RIM is in a downward spiral” analyst predictions and betting big on RIM’s continued growth!

via:bbreview

RIM Releases BlackBerry Messenger 6 Officially!

RIM let us know that the official roll-out of BlackBerry Messenger 6.0

started at 12:01AM EST TODAY (THIS MORNING)

Sorry we jumped the gun a few hours ago but now you understand why. You can start checking App World now for the update but due to their 24 hour cache period that may take a bit. As you have already seen RIM has started approving apps in App World that make use of the Social Platform available in BBM 6 so they are available when BBM6 launches now.

In an interview with Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer Relations @ RIM, he told us that BBM now has 45 million users and is seeing tremendous growth. They process over a billion BBM messages a day and the number is only growing. This ability to use BBM inside 3rd party apps is going to be explosive but more on that soon. RIM’s goal is to let developer harness BBM’s instant feature. Mike told me his colleague described it as both Instant AND Intimate. In other words sub 3 second messages along with a intimate private chat setting. Now developers are going to be able to tap into that powerful BBM social graph.

You should be able to find BBM 6 in App World sometime today or directly at:
www.blackberry.com/blackberrymessenger[qrcode pix=150]http://nhcbba.com/downloads/Blackberry_Messenger[/qrcode]

Check out the press release below:

RIM cuts around 2,000 jobs; Shuffles management

RIM announced today that in addition to some management changes, they are cutting about 2,000 employees from their workforce. We knew that some slimming down was on the way for RIM, but weren’t sure of the exact number of employees that would be lost. More on the cuts and other “expense reductions” will be known after the RIM’s next earnings call in mid-September.

“The workforce reduction is believed to be a prudent and necessary step for the long term success of the company and it follows an extended period of rapid growth within the company whereby the workforce had nearly quadrupled in the last five years alone.”

Both Jim Balsille and Mike Lazaridis will retain their co-CEO positions for now however. Along with the cuts comes some movement among management positions at RIM as well. Just a few days ago RIM lost Ryan Bidan to Samsung, and RIM today has announced the retirement of their Chief Operating Officer Don Morrison as well. Keep reading for the full press release.

RIM’s is Financially Sound and Earnings Are Very Attractive

There are a lot of websites claiming RIM is dead and the BlackBerry is out. This isn’t the case when you look at the future device and OS roadmap and it’s especially not true when you look at the company’s financials. iStockAnalyst did a good breakdown of some key metrics. Highlights include:

• For companies such as RIMM that maintain significant inventories, inventory to sales ratio is a key performance indicator. Inventory to sales for RIMM was 4.41 percent last year, while for this year it is 3.10 percent. Since inventory to sales has decreased from last year by -1.31 percent, RIMM’s inventory management seems to be good.
• RIMM’s sales of $20.6 billion, based on trailing 12 month sales is higher than the sales for the year ended February 2011, which means demand for the company’s products is increasing (I think this is valid even when we consider price inflation). RIMM’s current ratio of 2.04 indicates that the company is managing its operations conservatively.
• The long-term debt for RIMM is $0.0 million, while the net current assets are $4.1 billion, this indicates that the company’s financial position is very sound.
• Currently, the company’s P/E of 4.11 relative to the growth rate of 51.23 percent, based on the average of the three, four and five year historical EPS growth rates, is very attractive.

Read more at “Should You Invest in Research in Motion” at iStockAnalyst.

source:bbcool

RIM reports Q4 earnings; revenue misses estimates despite record shipments

Shares of Research in Motion stock declined over 12% after hours on Thursday as the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings for its 2011 fiscal year. RIM reported revenue that missed Wall Street’s consensus on device shipments that exceeded expectations by 200,000 units. Fourth-quarter revenue came in at $5.6 billion, just below the $5.64 billion analysts expected. Device shipments for the quarter totalled 14.9 million units, beating estimates of 14.7 million units, and full-year shipments were a record 52.3 million units — a 43% improvement over the year prior. Full-year revenue of $19.9 billion grew 33% over the 2010 fiscal year and net income was up 47% year-over-year to $3.4 billion. “We are pleased to report record shipments and financial performance in fiscal 2011,” said RIM’s Co-CEO Jim Balsillie in a statement. “As we enter fiscal 2012, RIM is in an excellent position to benefit from the continuing convergence of the mobile communications and mobile computing markets. We are laying a strong foundation for RIM’s expanding market opportunity through focused investments and we are extremely excited about our smartphone, tablet and platform roadmaps.” Hit the break for the full press release.

Press Release: RIM Announces Two Additional BlackBerry 4G PlayBook Models For LTE and HSPA+ Networks

Mobile World Congress 2011 is now here and to kick off the show RIM has made a number of announcements, the biggest one being the addition of two more BlackBerry PlayBooks to RIM’s tablet family. Joining the already-announced WiFi PlayBook and WiFi + WiMax PlayBook (Sprint 4G), today RIM has announced that LTE and HSPA+ versions of the PlayBook are on the way too. There’s no specific word on carriers, or pricing or launch date, but ya know… at least we know they’re coming and likely to a carrier near you. Hopefully the wait won’t be too long! Keep reading for the full press release.

Press Release

Press Release: RIM Announces BlackBerry Travel App – Download it Today for Free!

WorldMate has long been one of those must-have apps for traveling BlackBerry executives (it’s also been on installed on the BlackBerry of pretty much every RIM executive I have ever interviewed), so maybe we shoudn’t be surprised to see RIM announce today a FREE travel app for BlackBerry made in partnership with WorldMate. The new all-in-one BlackBerry Travel app provides users with a number of great benefits and features:

• Stay informed on flight changes & cancellations.
• Get seamless integration with emailed itineraries – the app automatically grabs your info.
• Find the best places to eat and shop with Yelp®.
• Quickly search & book hotels right from the app.
• Get recommendations for items you may have forgotten or booked incorrectly.
• Be prepared with 5-day weather forecasts & a currency converter.
• Share your travel plans with friends, family & colleagues by email or on LinkedIn®.

The app also features a desktop component that allows users to book flights and car rentals, as well as print and edit itineraries, from their computer. You can learn more about the app at blackberry.com/travel and download it today in beta from App World. Note: The BlackBerry Travel app is only available in North America, the UK and Spain as of right now – it will roll out to more countries with time. Keep reading for the full press release.

Download BlackBerry Travel (beta) from App World

Press Release: RIM Announces Plans to Provide Carriers with new BBM Mobile Gifting Platform

I didn’t see this one coming, but I like it! Today at Mobile World Congress 2011, RIM announced a Mobile Gifting Platform that works via BlackBerry Messenger and App World. Check out the press release below for full details. Pretty awesome!

Press Release

RIM Announces Plans to Provide Carriers with new BBM Mobile Gifting Platform

New mobile gifting platform will integrate with BlackBerry App World and carrier billing systems to allow BlackBerry subscribers to instantly gift airtime, apps and other carrier services from one subscriber to another using BBM

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, BARCELONA, SPAIN–(Marketwire – Feb. 14, 2011) – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced plans for an innovative mobile gifting platform for carriers that will allow one authorized BlackBerry® subscriber to use their post-paid or pre-paid account to conveniently, securely and instantly approve and pay for airtime, apps or other carrier services requested by another BlackBerry subscriber.