RIM Shareholder Meeting

Ok, so I was just browsing the web for any info on the upcoming shareholder meeting tomorrow and came across articles from last year's meeting and to me it looks like nothing has changed except for the fact that at last year's meeting the stock had fallen 28% to $54.83 and this year from that number last year it has fallen 47% to $28.98 today. I love RIM and their BB handsets, but how long can they let this continue. Their stock has fallen 62% since March 2010. As Kevin has stated in some posts recently, I hope RIM is ready to come out and fight with something, but they are not showing much to make me think that they can. I know, this has been said a thousand times in different ways, but I couldn't believe looking at this article from last year and how much has not changed at all, and I wanted to share it with everyone. Obviously the Co-CEO's are not doing a damn thing and it needs to be changed immediately. They might have built this business to what it came to be, but they do not have the vision to take this company into the future.

Bloomberg
RIM Says It Will �Perform� Again as Stock Slides
July 14, 2010, 4:18 PM EDT
MORE FROM BUSINESSWEEK


July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, set out to reassure investors that its new Web browser and operating system will impress consumers as its stock has fallen 19 percent in 2010.

The shares have declined because some investors think RIM can�t match its past performance, co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie said at the company�s annual shareholder meeting yesterday in Waterloo, Ontario.

�My answer to that is to perform, and that is our intent,� he said.

RIM, best known for handsets with a full keyboard, has struggled to create a touch-screen device that can compete with Apple Inc.�s iPhone partly because of an older Web browser that makes surfing the Internet harder. While the company said last month the new software will appear on BlackBerrys before the end of September, the stock tumbled after sales rose less than analysts expected last quarter.

�We�re uneasy about whether RIM is falling behind the crowd, especially Mr. Mac,� said Franklin Kains, who attended the meeting. Kains, a 62-year-old agricultural engineer, said he has held the stock for three years. �The last year has given us some concerns, the doubts are starting.�

Since peaking this year at $75.94 on March 11, RIM has dropped 28 percent in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares today fell 76 cents to $54.83 at 4 p.m. New York time.

Growth Overseas

Rim�s share of the smartphone market fell to 19.4 percent of global shipments in the first quarter from 20.9 percent a year earlier, according to researcher IDC, based in Framingham, Massachusetts. Apple claimed 16.1 percent of the smartphone market, up from 10.9 percent a year earlier.

�Once you use it, you will see how unique and compelling it is,� co-CEO Mike Lazaridis told investors yesterday after giving a demonstration of the BlackBerry 6 operating system.

Bob Campbell, 69, a retired shareholder, said while RIM is �not doing that badly,� the company needs to look abroad as growth slows in the U.S. �What RIM has to have is less exposure to the U.S.,� he said.

RIM has 41 percent of the North American market, compared with 22 percent for Apple, according to researcher Gartner Inc. Two-fifths of BlackBerry�s 46 million users reside outside of North America, up from a third two years ago.

--Editors: Romaine Bostick, Margot Slade.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hugo Miller in Toronto at [email protected].

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom at [email protected].

I can't believe it... I'm finally convinced that RIM + BB are doomed..

I better get rid of my Bold 9780.

*NOT!*

Based on this meeting tomorrow I thought all along that they would announce the 9900 / 9930 today, one day before the board meeting. I only have a few hours left before I pack my head in the sand.

time will tell.... we have to see what they actually say or don't say tomorrow. Kevin is there, so I am expecting a full report. I think with the recent article about Google buying RIM and his reasoning behind it in the podcast, we'll see a really upfront article. :)

Originally Posted by adiafzal

I can't believe it... I'm finally convinced that RIM + BB are doomed..

I better get rid of my Bold 9780.

*NOT!*

Did I say anything about getting rid of current devices or that their devices were not good? I don't believe I did. I'm still using my old and trusty 8330, and I have had almost no problems at all. All I said was that they need to make some changes to move back to where they were less than 2 years ago. You guys that jump all over people that post anything that might have a negative feel toward it are just as bad as the trolls that you claim fill the boards. I just wanted to post this article that shocked me from how long RIM has been letting this continue. You guys jumped all over Kevin last week because he wrote basically a what-if article. I love everything that BB brings, they just need to get their management in order to keep their company from going the way of Palm and others alike. I wasn't trying to convince you to go one way or the other, just wanted to put something out there relating to the meeting tomorrow that had significant relevance.

is there a phone number we can call to hear the meeting live?

Saw this today: :D

Predictions for tonight's RIM shareholder meeting: Lots of FML, a little LOL, some FU and a bunch of OMG.

Originally Posted by Teknojnky

is there a phone number we can call to hear the meeting live?

1+ 800 264-7882

Confirmation: 30150599

Better then that, join the in progress Webcast:

Research In Motion - Investor Events

9900 rolling out in the next month :D

Listened in to the meeting and found the same ol' thing. I wish I had a dollar every time they said "what YOU need to understand".

Sounds like more delays on the QNX phone line and dodged the question of native email.

Sounds like the stock will be even cheaper to purchase in the next couple of days.

The best news is it sounds like they have enough cash to get them along for a while, but will it be enough to last until they "they understand" and get the job done.

I am sure this all will be spun in different ways from different sources. Some will be positive and some negative. In the end it was the same old song and dance from RIM. It's up to you and the customer to be the judge if thats good or bad.:confused:

Tim

RIM deflects criticism at annual meeting | Reuters

(Reuters) - Research In Motion executives deflected criticism from investors who complained the BlackBerry maker has been mismanaged and marketed poorly as rivals Apple and Google steal its market share.

While welcomed with applause by most of the roughly 700 people at its annual meeting on Tuesday, some shareholders lobbed tough questions about product delays, lack of shelf space for its PlayBook tablet and whether a limp share price made RIM a takeover target.

Co-Chief Executive Mike Lazaridis said the new Bold smartphone, one of seven updated models in RIM's product pipeline, could have been brought to market sooner but RIM returned it to its laboratories after realizing handset makers were engaging in a "arms race" in the United States.

The decision "may have delayed us but we're going to come out ahead," Lazaridis said.

The company has 67 million subscribers using its BlackBerry smartphones, co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said.

RIM avoided what would have been an embarrassing vote of confidence in its top brass when an activist shareholder withdrew a motion to force co-founder Lazaridis and Balsillie to relinquish their other shared role as board chairman.

RIM has promised it will create a committee to study the issue and report back early next year.

Its directors were returned to the board unopposed, with an initial count showing more than 90 percent support for each.

and...

RIM shareholders go easy on smartphone maker MarketWatch First Take - MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) � In the wake of a stunning drop in the shares of Research In Motion Ltd.�s over the last few months, its co-chief executives found a mostly polite group of investors at the annual meeting, where the company�s corporate governance issues were barely mentioned.

Shareholders re-elected the entire board of nine directors, despite a recommendation by proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis, to withhold votes for RIM�s RIMM -0.11% lead director, John Richardson. See Research In Motion news here.

One frustrated but patient investor summed up the tone of the meeting in his question at the outset, when he said he was not going to �dwell on the negativity that is in the popular business media. I think it is overblown.� Another shareholder who said he �has big dreams� for the company also found it �ironic is that analysts who are criticizing this company are typing it out on a BlackBerry.� He said RIM�s biggest problem is marketing.

RIM shares have fallen hard this year � plunging nearly 60% from a high of $70 in mid-February to their current level of $28.48.

Much of that drop has come since the company cut its guidance for the first fiscal quarter ended May 28, citing an unexpected slowdown in sales and a shift towards its low-end devices. In its report for the period on June 16, the company slashed its targets for the full year, citing the same factors, as well as a later-than-expected launch of handsets with its newest BlackBerry 7.0 platform.

At the meeting, co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis were defensive on a few issues, including explaining the delayed launch of the BlackBerry 7.0 platform, why they plan seven different BlackBerry models, and the timing of email on the new Playbook tablet and of the debut of QNX-based phones, RIM�s next generation operating system.

Still, compared to the drubbing the two executives and RIM�s board might have received had the meeting been held in New York or Silicon Valley, it was very civilized, perhaps too civilized.