http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-02/rim-stock-falls-below-book-value-as-blackberry-s-u-s-market-share-shrinks.html

RIM’s catastrophic failure has been going on for the last 4 years.  Every sign the company was in trouble was evident back then but folks, including myself wanted to give the company time to turn itself around.

Fixing or redirecting a company takes time.  However, RIM wasted those 4 years.  The company’s leadership is entirely to blame.  The company’s platform issues are just a part of the problem.  The company is one very ill and weakened entity that needs to be repaired at all levels.

Can it be repaired?  I am a restructuring and turnaround guy who also happens to be an engineer who actually worked in early cellular development, analog telephony, and early telephony digital switching as an engineer.  Been doing this for 30 years and I have to say that if you track the life and death of companies you can see how a company can be saved but can this company be saved?  I doubt it.

A part of me says it could be saved but it will need a major overhaul and quick thinkers running the show.  The company will also need the help of the applications development community.  The apps developers are one of the two mission critical groups needed to save RIM.  The other group is RIM’s leadership.  Without both, RIM is definitely dead

RIM needs the apps development community.  RIM needs to fire the entire executive leadership and that includes the company’s founders and co-executive chair people; I mean gone completely including from the board.  The lack of foresight has been mind boggling.  The stubbornness displayed by the executive team and board has been nothing short of unconscionable behavior displayed towards shareholders.  RIM is a classic case for a company that did absolutely everything wrong from a vision and management perspective.

The one thing change does is buy you time from Wall Street.  Wall Street loves to be able to point to substantive change and say “let us give the company a second chance because the company has made positive changes and if we don’t we will have lost billions”.

Now will my suggestions result in a RIM turnaround? Maybe, but only if every step is perfectly executed and those things not under its control all occur in RIM’s favor.  However, at this juncture this is all a big crapshoot.

RIM is now dealing with a new problem: its stock price is less than its book value.  This is what you call a “dead duck”.

Where do I ultimately land on this issue?

RIM is finished.