“The past few years have been pretty rough for Research in Motion and 2011 was worse still. Now, after several missteps and bad calls, the company is apparently considering a move to calm investors and show that it is attempting to change the corporate environment that has crippled its ability to compete,” Amanda Alix writes for The Motley Fool. “Strong rumors abound that have co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stepping down as board co-Chairs, setting the stage for the appointment of Barbara Stymiest, a board member of five years. Are things really changing, or is the company just primping for the next suitor?”

“For years, Lazaridis and Balsillie have run the enterprise almost as an afterthought. Once the leader in the smart phone market, it now commands only 10%. This has come about purely because the two CEOs have consistently refused to keep up with the times, and the market,” Alix writes. “Why would those who know better run a company into the ground? In order to make itself an attractive acquisition, that’s why.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: DCW, precisely.

Any company that would make and inflict upon people such absolutely horrid products as the BlackBerry Storm or the PlayBook — especially while claiming that “amateur hour is over” — deserves its fate.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]