RIM loses another exec, reportedly starts layoffs

June 21, 2011 By Geoff Duncan

Research in Motion has lost its digital marketing officer to Samsung, and reports have the company already handing out layoff notices.

Canada’s Research in Motion might be putting on a brave face that everything is peachy-keen with their business—but investors have been hammering the company’s share price, and apparently RIM isn’t a big hit with some of its employees, either. Yesterday, the company said farewell to its chief marketing officer Brian Wallace, who will be moving over to smartphone rival Samsung. And while the company has not confirmed anything, the Waterloo Region Record—a local Ontario paper near RIM’s headquarters—reports the company is already handing out layoff notices.

The moves come immediately in the wake of a disappointing quarterly earnings report in which the company failed to meet already-lowered earnings expectations, and announced it expected its revenues to continue to decline for the rest of the year. Although the company is not losing money—RIM earned almost $700 million in profit last quarter—the performance is far less than investors hoped for, as they wait for the iconic phone maker to come up with products that compete successfully in the consumer smartphone space with devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems.

Wallace’s defection from the RIM follows barely three months after the departure of RIM’s chief marketing officer Keith Pardy, who had been responsible for all BlackBerry brand marketing. RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie had taken on more promotional duties when Pardy left the company; Wallace’s departure will place that much more pressure on Balsillie.

The Waterloo Region Record gave no details of the layoffs, but noted the company has about 9,000 employees in the Ontario area and a total of about 17,500 workers worldwide.

RIM’s stock is down more than 50 percent for the year, and Barron’s financial weekly—which was still bullish on RIM as recently as two months ago now says it “goofed,” saying investors only choice now is to sell shares to minimize their losses. “The company’s best hope now is a takeover, but there’s no suitor in sight,” the paper wrote.

Showing 9 comments

Tabletaholic at 8:37pm 21st June 2011 they have some time, just need to get past the next 6 to 9 months and get the new OS on all the devices
Jaetjeans Joseph at 5:42pm 21st June 2011 UH OH!There goes Play-R-Book!
Chris Johnson at 5:36pm 21st June 2011 I wish I had something nice to say about my RIM but I don't. I hate OS6, I hate my Bold, the Storm series were perhaps the worst phones ever developed - even more than the Razr - and compared to all other Smart Phones, Blackberrys are almost a joke.I'm embarrassed to admit I have one, I tell people I own a Nokia 6012.
Dan Gaul at 10:30am 21st June 2011 beginning of the end?
AvNv GRv at 5:24pm 21st June 2011 Now, rim has to sell itself to microsoft to save its name in the smartphone market... Sad to see a leader turning into a struggler...
Adam Krant at 5:21pm 21st June 2011 maybe apple will buy them lol
Matthew Ferrara at 5:17pm 21st June 2011 Can you say "for sale" (maybe 'foreclosure' is more like it...)
Rich Hansell at 5:13pm 21st June 2011 RIM is lost. They have two dummies running the co. by committee and neither has vision. It's shame, they could have competed at one point.
Ted Bradford II at 5:09pm 21st June 2011 Their OS sucks, is antiquated and all they focus on is new product. When IT departments begged, they shouldve listened. I've been using RIM since 2007 & am headed full on into Droid. RIM, look up my user name, tags and posts... I'm one of millions, and you're fired.