[Entertainment72]

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry phone, plans to repurchase as much as $1.2 billion in shares to compensate investors as its growth slows.

The company may buy as many as 21 million shares, or about 3.6 percent of its stock outstanding, according to a statement today. The purchases may start on Nov. 9. RIM said it hasn�t repurchased any shares in the past 12 months.

Sales growth is slowing as more people already have e-mail- enabled phones and as competition intensifies. RIM forecast third-quarter sales in September that fell short of analysts� projections, a sign the company may have to sell more phones at lower prices to compete with Apple Inc.�s iPhone.

�They don�t see any major acquisition on the horizon so the best way to reward shareholders, or the best return, is a buyback,� said Nick Agostino, an analyst at Research Capital Corp. in Toronto. He recommends buying RIM shares.

RIM is also taking advantage of a slump in its stock price. Before today, the shares had dropped by a third since reaching a 2009 high of $85.77 on Sept. 23.

RIM�s board said the buybacks won�t affect the company�s ability to �execute its growth plans given the strength of RIM�s balance sheet and expected cash flow generation over the next several quarters.�

�The company is saying they believe, like I believe, that they are undervalued,� said Agostino. �Over time we�ve seen a nice recovery in their shares following their buybacks.�

RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, rose $1.60, or 2.8 percent, to $59.21 at 9:31 a.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Research In Motion May Buy Back $1.2 Billion in Stock

[JA_LDP]

this is good news for rimm and any shareholders.

[pleasetellme]

this is good news for rimm and any shareholders.

This may be but the past month has been tough to deal with for investors.

$1.2 billion ain't no chump change, I haven't seen their reports lately so if someone knows how much cash do they have? Five billion? Curious what kind of dent this is going to put in their pockets.

[stuaw11]

They could, oh you know, dump that money into redoing their OS and make their phones more competitive other than buying back stock and selling more low cost phones to beat out Apple.

[avt123]

They could, oh you know, dump that money into redoing their OS and make their phones more competitive other than buying back stock and selling more low cost phones to beat out Apple.

We can only dream lol.

[stock-investment]

its a great news

[MCope]

The key word there is "It's growth slows." I think the last ditch effort on the newest phones released cost them more than they hoped and was expecting to recover from the iPhewy slam. Buying back stock doesn't seem like a smart idea.

That is a significant amount for a buy back with nothing to show for except for the latest released phones that haven't had everyone beating down the door to purchase.

[jlsparks]

This may be but the past month has been tough to deal with for investors.

$1.2 billion ain't no chump change, I haven't seen their reports lately so if someone knows how much cash do they have? Five billion? Curious what kind of dent this is going to put in their pockets.

From their 2Q2009 consolidated financial statements:

The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments was $2.50 billion as at August 29, 2009, compared to $2.42 billion at the end of the previous quarter, an increase of $78.5 million over the prior quarter. Cash flow from operations in Q2 was approximately $564 million which was offset primarily by capital expenditures of approximately $307 million and intangible asset purchases of approximately $179 million.

They grew the # of subscriber lines by 3.5% in 2Q, to 32 million, on revenues of ~$5.2B. I'd say they're not going anywhere any time soon.

[meathead00]

Maybe they will build a new phone like the iphone and put it on the market with a 1000 apps and outsell them!

[spiderhider]

Why build another iphone?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[meathead00]

Why not? The competition would be great! Like verizon & at&t! Plus it would give more opportunity to the people.

[Proda]

they have to do sometihng to prop up the stock, its really taken a hit lately..

[Jrbrass]

I for one own shares in Rimm and Apple (AAPL). Apple performs much better than Research in Motion. That's becuse Apple continues to put out first rate products and tries their best to keep them updated. However, with all the problems Rimm has been having with their Storm products, it's no wonder their stock went down. Rimm continues to put out crappy phones with bugs and an OS that needs some serious work. Their brower is no comparison to the Apple Safari, they need to work on that as well. Just to let you know, I do own a Curve 8330. I was going to buy a Storm 1 and a Storm 2, but with all the negative comments and reviews why waste the money?