“Research In Motion Ltd. said revenue missed its forecast last quarter amid accelerating market-share losses for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets to Apple Inc., sending the shares down as much as 11 percent,” Scott Moritz and Hugo Miller report for Bloomberg. “RIM fell (RIMM) as low as $16.61 in trading before U.S. exchanges opened. The stock had dropped 68 percent this year before today, while Apple advanced 20 percent.”
“Third-quarter revenue was ‘slightly lower’ than the $5.3 billion to $5.6 billion the company had projected and earnings were ‘at the low to mid point’ of its forecast, according to an unscheduled statement from Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM today,” Moritz and Miller report. “RIM said it doesn’t expect to meet its full-year profit target.”
Moritz and Miller report, “The shortfall — the fourth straight quarter sales missed analysts’ estimates — puts more pressure on co-Chief Executive Officers Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis as they seek to revive a company that once dominated the U.S. smartphone market. RIM’s market-share decline has prompted investors such as Jaguar Financial Corp. to call for it to divide into separate companies, seek a merger or sell itself.”
“RIM will record a $485 million pretax provision to revalue the inventory for the PlayBook tablet, which has failed to win over users in a market dominated by Apple’s iPad. RIM said more promotions are needed to drive demand for its tablet, whose shipments slumped to 150,000 units last quarter, the second straight drop. In its most recent quarter, Cupertino, California-based Apple sold a record 11.12 million iPads,” Moritz and Miller report. “RIM said device shipments in the fourth quarter will decline from the third quarter. In the fiscal third quarter ended Nov. 26, BlackBerry smartphone shipments were 14.1 million.”
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