During a conference call this evening, management of Research in Motion (RIMM) said that despite investor frustration, the company will ultimately bounce back from “some of the most difficult times in the history of this company,” as co-CEO Jim Balsillie put it.
The conference call followed a fiscal Q3 report in which the company said its shipments of BlackBerry handhelds this quarter would fall by a greater amount than the Street expected, perhaps dropping to a range of 11 million to 12 million units, below estimates of 13 million to 14 million.
Shares traded lower by $1.01, or 6.7%, to $14.12 $1.15, or almost 8%, at $13.98 in late trading.
Balsillie said that he and his co-chief, Mike Lazaridis wanted to turn around impatience that has built among investors following several mis-steps:
We are in the process of completing the largest platform and organizational transition in the company’s history and while we have remained a solidly profitable — remain solidly profitable — and delivered significant unit volume during this transition, we recognize that our shareholders feel we have fallen short in terms of product execution, market share and financial performance. That being said, we continue to believe that our transition will better position us to deliver enhanced value to shareholders and enhance our leading position in the mobile space. It is important for you to know that Mike and I [...] understand investor sentiment [and] we are more committed than ever to addressing the issues at hand.
Balsillie said that he and Lazaridis would give up their regular annual pay and take a $1-per-year salary, effective immediately.
Furthermore, the company plans “a compliance review of all aspects of the business to recover the best ways t! o improv e the company,” said Balsillie, “to improve the company and position ourselves for the future. We are leaving no stone unturned in� evaluating a number of areas.”
The CEOs said they now see the BlackBerry 10 upgrade to the company’s flagship operating system software not arriving until the second half of 2012, later than most analysts’ expectations for a spring or mid-year release.
Lazaridis said the company’s need to get design right for the U.S. market, and to have chips for faster 4G/LTE cellular service would require a longer time frame to introduce the devices:
As I said on the last earnings call, we are focused on delivering a high quality, fully featured user experience when these products are launched. This means having a well-developed ecosystem of publications and services both in the hardware specifications, industrial design, and application features that will meet the expectations of consumers in the competitive US market. To achieve this goal, we need a highly integrated dual core LTE platform. The processor we selected offers industry-leading power and efficiency, and also allows us to deliver the industrial design that we believe is critical to the success in this market segment. This chipset will not be available until mid-2012, and as a result of this and certain other factors, we now expect our first BlackBerry 10 smartphones to reach markets in the latter part of calendar 2012.
The company’s earnings will be reduced next year by a “comprehensive marketing and promotion” program, said Balsillie.
Chief financial officer Brian Bidulka remarked that sell-through of 13 million units of BlackBerrys in the quarter was “weaker than expected due to the number of�factors including competitive launches, the October service interruption, as well as delays ! in certa in�BlackBerry 7 product launches.”
Related Articles:Will Ball Disappoint Analysts Next Quarter?
Best Bank Stocks To Watch In November 2014
Tags: BLL ,Good Stocks To Invest In 2015 ,Good Stocks To Watch ,Good Transportation Stocks To Invest In ,NYSE ,Transportation Stocks ,Top Dividend Stocks 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment