RIM releases third quarter results
Posted Dec 15, 2011 10:35:41 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Waterloo based tech giant Research in Motion has released its third quarter numbers.
RIM reported a profit of $265 million in its latest quarter as revenue slipped, but still enjoyed an increase in Blackberry subscribers around the world. The smart-phone maker, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, says the profit amounted to 51 cents per share, down from $911 million or $1.74 per share a year ago.
In a conference call yesterday afternoon, co-CEO’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis announced that they would be lowering their cash compensation to $1.00, to show investors their passion for the company. Balsillie went on to say that the company is undergoing a massive overhaul and spoke about some of the changes.
“We will be reevaluating our product portfolio, operations, manufacturing and R&D strategy. We plan to introduce new devices into the smartphone and tablet market, as well as products and services that better leverage out global cloud infrastructure and unique capabilities within the smart-phone markets.”
Balsillie went on to announce that a service disruption in October, had a negative impact on the companies revenue.
“Q3 revenue also reflected a negative impact of approximately $50 million dollars as a result of the October service interrupt. Sales outside the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada represented approximately 61% of total revenue compared to 56% in the second quarter.”
The guidance forecast for the next quarter though, did not impress investors, as Lazaridis announced that the new Blackberry 10 smartphones will be delayed because of a processor chip problem.
“This chip set will not be available until mid 2012. As a result of this and certain other factors, we now expect our first Blackberry 10 smart-phones to reach markets in the latter part of 2012.”
Lazaridis went on to say that is an opportunity for their Blackberry 7 phones to continue to make an impact around the world and despite a price drop, Lazaridis says they will stands behind their Playbook tablet, saying the Playbook’s 2.0 update is on time and will happen in February.
“We’re committed to the Blackberry Playbook. It’s an important aspect of our longer term smartphone and mobile computing strategy. While we would have preferred the initial launch to have been smoother, I firmly believe the Blackberry Playbook tablet remains the most secure and most advanced tablet platform on the market today.”
Excluding one time items, including a write down to the value of its inventory of Playbook tablets, the company says it earned $667 million in the quarter.
eric.drozd@rci.rogers.com
