Research in Motion, makers of the once-might BlackBerry smartphone platform, has found itself in an increasingly bad situation over the last few years. Poor product performance and a string of bad business decisions – including failing to take the threat posed by the iPhone and Android seriously – have left RIM in dire straights. What’s more, it doesn’t look like anything will be improving any time soon. In fact, they may be about to get worse.
RIM is scheduled to release their earnings report for the first quarter of the 2012 fiscal year this afternoon, and by all accounts there isn’t likely to be any good news. Last quarter RIM reported a significant drop in profits. Today, they’re expected to report significant operating losses for this quarter.
While there has in the past been some hope that a successful launch of the BlackBerry 10 platform could turn the struggling company around, that’s looking less and less likely. In fact, there’s cause for speculation about whether RIM will ever get BlackBerry 10 off the ground at all. According to recent reports, the company is considering splitting up its handset and software businesses, selling off the handset business, and licensing software like BlackBerry Messenger.
RIM’s stock price and market cap have been in steady decline for several months now. As of right now, RIM’s stock is trading at $9.11 per share with a market value of $4.82 billion. If this afternoon’s earnings report goes as poorly as expected, you can bet that that number will be going down even further.