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RIM (RIMM -21.2%) has added to its losses, as worries about the impact of BB10's services...

  • Friday, December 21, 2012, 2:09 PM ET
    RIM (RIMM -21.2%) has added to its losses, as worries about the impact of BB10's services pricing mount. Goldman, which upgraded RIM to Buy last month (I, II), suggests investors are overreacting, since BB7 won't be affected. But Deutsche is less sanguine, forecasting RIM's service revenue will fall 20% each of the next 2 years. Ditto CLSA, which is "downgrading" shares to Sell from Underperform. "RIMM’s business model is being challenged by operators that are unwilling to both subsidize devices aggressively and hand over a slice of their data revenue." (transcript)
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This news story has 15 comments:

  • The lowering of services revenue has been discussed since last summer. It was bound to happen. I agree that investors are over-reacting, but why not?

    RIMM had more tham doubled in 6m on virtually no real news. Time to take those profits! Hence, the selloff makes sense, albiet for bs reasons.

    My target here is $20 prior to BB10 release data. If it's a flop, it's obviously a bailout at anything over cash/share, if it's a success, $50+ share is not out of the question.
    21 Dec 2012, 02:21 PM Reply Like
  • It's rediculous. You "bet" on one single product - BB10. We didn't see it in definitive commercial version, we didn't see any features or apps, we didn't see any new Blackberry devices that might run the new OS, we don't know when BB10 "might" eventually get released and still, you speculate on rather it's going to be a success or not and how much RIMM shares might worth...

    You should play in casino rather than investing on market.
    21 Dec 2012, 04:33 PM Reply Like
  • Kinda like people betting on the iPhone 5 being a success? oops.
    22 Dec 2012, 09:15 AM Reply Like
  • Which American companies still use Blackberry? My company does not; we left that infrastructure 5 years ago, and there is not a single person here who would go back to a Blackberry product. Based on my personal observations, there is zero chance that Blackberry will suddenly recapture the heights from which it once soared.
    21 Dec 2012, 04:31 PM Reply Like
  • Davidoff, points noted. I'm not sure what your overall valuation case is regarding BB10, clearly the market agrees with you that it's a long shot. Go back and read my two articles on RIMM from July. I split up the valuation and demonstrated how the market was already pricing in absolute failure... Yet, there were still shorters and rabid AAPL fans.

    The market has realized that there is a lot of upside potential in RIMM- now what is the % chance of success? You say 0%? Then RIMM is probably worth around $9 to you. Also, how do you define success?

    Capturing 5%+ of the US smartphone market would be huge- yes the % is much lower than it was in 2008, but the total base is exponentially larger.

    If you prefer to go long AAPL, you've been given a near $200 haircut opportunity, if you prefer to short RIMM, at least you'd be making a better choice than those guys last summer.

    We'll see how this plays out, best of luck!
    21 Dec 2012, 05:45 PM Reply Like
  • J Mintzmyer,

    Now I'm long NOK and I was short AAPL till this week. Both worked pretty well. I invested in RIMM in September at $6,60 and sold at $11,80 a couple of months later. To be honest I was very surprised of that rally and I think that RIMM doesn't worth that much, that's why I sold.

    I would define BB10 success as RIM selling 20-25m BB10 devices worldwide and signing 1-2m new corporate service contracts. I honestly don't know what the rates of BB10 success are, since I didn't even see the finished product. The only thing that I know is that they are quiet late with the release and that they are out of cash to fix BB10 if something goes bad, or to launch a high scale promotion. If it's a failure I'd say that $9 a share is clearly a scam. It would never worth that much. If it's a success described above the share might soar at $20-25, but certainly not $50. Who would pay that much for a struggling tech company with just $950m in cash? They barely have enough to commercialize one single product! It's a double or nothing configuration here. Either they make it with BB10 or they fill for a bankruptcy. That's clearly not wise to advice people investing in RIM! I wouldn certainly not take that responsibility.

    I don't know if you realize it or not, but the whole RIMM rally was clearly based on takeover odds. Now that RIM failed its Q4 the speculations will be even more intense. You can only speculate about how much other companies might offer for RIM. Anyhow, I saw only one BB10 touch device, it was made of cheap plastic and I wasn't really impressed. Nevertheless the corporate features that BB10 has to offer on paper (don't know what we are going to get at the end) are clearly very interesting, so if RIM concentrates exclusively on corporations and businessmen, they might make it eventually. Not one single high-end Blackberry could capture any attention of the large public, or of teenagers. So maybe going back to basics will be the key.
    22 Dec 2012, 02:23 PM Reply Like
  • Really, your company bailed on Rimm 5 years ago. What did the go for Palm? Because iphone were hardly on the radar and android didnt exist. another pointless basher against rimm. Grow and learn on what QNX does and the power of it
    23 Dec 2012, 04:11 AM Reply Like
  • Thank you for the cheap shares I bought today. The hair cut it got was ridiculous and it will bounce back hard and I expect it to hit 16 to. 18 bucks by Jan 30
    23 Dec 2012, 04:12 AM Reply Like
  • Don't know about the future prospects, but the government is still a big user of BB products. This is mostly due to the fact that both android and iphone don't currently integrate well into an organization's infosec infrastructure.
    24 Dec 2012, 12:39 AM Reply Like
  • Your company left RIM in 2007? Really 2007? Incredible that you opine on a device yet to be released and know nothing about.

    Do some research, there are many US companies still using BB's. That's a bold prediction, I will join you , highly unlikely that RIM will trade north of $140. LOL
    24 Dec 2012, 09:36 AM Reply Like
  • Wow you really are misinformed. Please recheck RIM's financial before spouting off figures.
    24 Dec 2012, 09:41 AM Reply Like
  • Pointless is a polite comment, I could think of another word to describe Davidoff but I don't want to be reported, it is Christmas eve after all.
    24 Dec 2012, 09:43 AM Reply Like
  • Goldman fleeced the public again with RIMM
    21 Dec 2012, 04:34 PM Reply Like
  • Saw the beta BB10 version from the lab, quite clever -- will be my next wireless device upgrade. Bring on The Bull.
    21 Dec 2012, 11:43 PM Reply Like
  • Qnx is a great OS. Also like using the playbook. Really nice tablet and you can get a 64gb for under $200.
    24 Dec 2012, 01:18 AM Reply Like
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