The temperature is rising in Ontario, Canada offices and two key
executives might be feeling the heat.
In other words, Jim Balsillie and the other founder of Research In
Motion (
RIM
) might soon find themselves on the hotseat. After bleak
second-quarter returns were delivered late last week, a
well-connected Canadian investor and experienced merger lawyer had
some notable words regarding the company presently led by Balsillie
and Mike Lazaridis.
"What RIM needs now is either a transformational CEO or a sale of
the whole company," Victor Alboini, whose firm Jaguar Financial
owns roughly 5 percent of BlackBerry's parent company,
told
the International Business Times.
Once the darling of Corporate America, BlackBerry has slipped hard
and is gasping while competing in the smartphone industry as it
loses market share. Bloomberg reports returns publicized last month
were unpleasant to the ears of investors for the third-straight
quarter.
The iPhone manufactured by
Apple
(
APPL
) is trumping the BlackBerry while the Android software created by
Google (
GOOG
) for various devices also is gaining strength. The PlayBook, RIM's
attempt to enter the tablet market, has not caught on.
"RIM is on a path to becoming a niche player," analyst Ted Schadler
with Forrester Research
told
Bloomberg. "RIM has to essentially retrench its strategy. It has to
focus on what about its products make them different or better than
Apple or Google products."
