About Toronto Wireless

Sunday, January 22, 2012

RIM’s co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have stepped down


Posted By Ray Nicolini


Wow, this is unexpected for a Sunday night. Both of RIM’s co-CEOs, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, have stepped down, but will keep their roles as co-chairmen. Stepping into the RIM CEO limelight is COO Thorseten Heins. Heins stated that “It’s a fantastic growth story and it’s not coming to an end… What you will see with me is rigour and flawless execution.”
It’s been a whirlwind for RIM over the past year, competition has been intense on the hardware and software front, delayed products, poor sales, frustrated investors and a huge drop in their stock price. Over the past few weeks there have been rumours that RIM was looking to sell the company, specifically to Samsung, but this was quickly denied. Even in a the Wall Street Journal tonight “There is no intent to put the company up for sale”.
On a more interesting note, one of the rumours pointed towards to licence their BlackBerry 10 OS to other manufacturers, Heins stated that they are exploring this route and are looking at possible suitors “on a case-by-case basis”.
Source: Globe

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