If RIM wasn’t dead before, it is safe to say that it is now. A press release came out today with this stunning news:
The on-going competitive environment is impacting our business in the form of lower volumes and highly competitive pricing dynamics in the marketplace, and we expect our Q1 results to reflect this, and likely result in an operating loss for the quarter.
But there’ s more:
To further enhance our commitment to successfully completing our transformation, after the release of our year-end financial results, we engaged J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and RBC Capital Markets to assist the Company and our Board of Directors in reviewing RIM’s business and financial performance. These advisors have been tasked to help us with the strategic review we referenced on our year-end financial results conference call and to evaluate the relative merits and feasibility of various financial strategies, including opportunities to leverage the BlackBerry platform through partnerships, licensing opportunities and strategic business model alternatives.
This news made RIM shares fall almost 14% in after hours trading before recovering slightly. It’s a safe bet that investors have had enough and gave sell orders from their Android or iPhones.
Now RIM will tell you that Blackberry 10 will save the day. The problem is that they have to get to the fourth quarter to try and leverage that. I don’t think they can get there. At least not as an independent company. It’s a safe bet that they’ll be bought out. Assuming that they don’t go belly up first.