Shareholders mixed following RIM AGM
Posted Jul 13, 2011 05:14:33 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Research in Motion held it’s highly anticipated annual general meeting Tuesday night.
Co-CEO’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis made formal remarks where Lazaridis pointed to future releases such as the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 this Summer, 4G Playbooks this Fall and QNX based smartphones by early 2012.
The question and answer period with shareholders is where the meeting really heated up.
Lazaridis responded to shareholder Albert Weller’s question about why the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 will not feature 4G technology. He said, “The rest of the world does not have 4G yet and 4G is just going in the U.S. so we have to time it very carefully, because 4G impacts the thickness, the weight , the size and the battery consumption of the products.”
One shareholder, Andy Douse told the panel that RIM’s biggest weakness is it’s marketing, while taking a stab at negative analysts. “What I find ironic is that analysts who are sitting in this room will criticize this company while typing out that criticism on a BlackBerry,” he said.
Douse suggested RIM try to go after the US military’s computer purchasing budget.
Another shareholder, Albert Weller, asked the CEO’s to respond to the now infamous internal letter that leaked bashing RIM. Balsillie said, “You don’t get the letters saying thanks for the first $20 billion of sales often… I don’t know who wrote it, I don’t think that’s a constructive way to engage, I don’t even know if it’s real.”
A technology salesperson brought some pictures to show the co-CEO’s of store displays that were less than flattering for the Playbook. He asked why management is not seeking aggressive product placement, like its competitors do. Lazaridis answered that RIM is used to selling smartphones through carriers and will get better at selling retail. “This was our first retail product, this was our first tablet, this was our first tablet OS and it’s a really, really good product and it’s just been getting better and better and better and it will continue to, because it’s a solid, uniquely designed platform,” he said.
Balsillie ended the Q&A by assuring that if there is anything he can do to help shareholders sleep better at night, he’ll do it. He stressed that RIM’s expert team collaborates many times daily saying, “we work very hard and we do the very best we can and that’s the one thing we can assure you we do but we’re not perfect. We give our very, very best every day. I’ve never seen Mike work harder, we literally don’t take a day off.”
After the meeting, many shareholders weighed in with their thoughts.
One long time shareholder said people need to realize the risks of buying shares in high tech companies and need to be patient saying, “I think that what people maybe don’t realize is that when you buy into a high tech company, you’re taking some risk and the investors have to think that you buy and sell shares in a company like this and five years ago I don’t believe people were here when the share prices doubled”.
Another shareholder at the meeting said that only time will tell what will happen with RIM saying, “I was surprised of how upbeat it was, I think it was pretty good. They seem to be very focused right now. It’s a bit of a wait and see, like they said, we’ll have to wait a few more quarters. We’ve only had one quarter that hasn’t been as positive as we’d like, but let’s wait and see”.
Shareholder Andy Douse says the meeting touched on everything a shareholder wants to hear. “I thought that the meeting delivered everything that I was expecting to hear, I want them to stay the course because I think they have great potential that’ll be realized largely in the second half,” he said.
Ken Hat of Kitchener is a shareholder and wasn’t impressed. He said, “I think it could’ve been better. They’re not addressing the real problems. I mean, I don’t know how many times shareholders have to tell them, market, market, market. You know, that sells things”.
