Research In Motion – RIM (makers of Blackberry smartphones), has been loosing its senior professionals consistently for last one year. There have been concerns regarding competitiveness of its products and dipping financials. Earlier in 2011, July –the company also had slashed about 2000 jobs, which seems to have impacted its profitability further.
Considering Research In Motion’s loosing market share in the smartphone segment over last few years, there were no high expectations for the company’s fiscal fourth quarter results announced last week. The company reported a revenue for the quarter as $ 4.19 billion, down 19 percent from the revenue reported for the previous quarter, and a fall in sales to the tune of 20 %. The company reported a net loss of $125 million. The announcement of company’s fourth quarter results also coincided with the announcement of resignation of former co-CEO Jim Balsillie from the board of directors.
While the CEO Thorsten Heins who took over in January, is continuing with re-structure the business – there could be a possibility of the company heading for sale. A number of executives have exited RIM in the last one year as the company has been loosing its dominance and market share amidst competition from Apple and Android based phones. As per reports the company has recently seen the exit of Alistair Mitchell from products team & it is learnt that Alan Brenner – a senior executive for the Blackberry platform would also be exiting soon.
As of now the company has a number of senior level vacancies – chief marketing officer, chief operating officer , & director business operations for its Canada, Waterloo office. The development team and the products team seems to have suffered considering the exit of experienced professionals.