We have been talking lately about the problems faced by the Canadian company Research in Motion and here’s that the first days of 2012 are also bringing the first strategy changes: changes in management board as well as in marketing section.
Thus, after the pressures exerted by an important group of shareholders of the company, it seems that both Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie – the two co-founders of RIM – will lose their executive functions. The two co-CEO of the company will most likely be replaced by Barbara Stymiest, director recruited by the company in 2007, which is believed to have the necessary qualities to recover the Canadian company.
Until then, a committee composed of seven directors in charge at the company (including Ms. Stymiest) examined the decision-making structure and the advantages or disadvantages that would be in case of keeping the couple Lazaridis – Balsillie at the helm of RIM.
The second measure taken by RIM officials aims at boosting sales on tablet segment, where the results were far below expectations. Under these conditions, the price of all Playbook tablets (regardless of the storage capacity offered) remained unsold was reduced to $299 – until February 4 or until stocks run out.
The reduction is significant, given that one 64GB tablet was initially costing $700, the version with 32 GB – $ 599 and the 16GB – $499. Despite the fact that in these conditions, the company's profits will be almost zero, RIM could this way get rid of significant stocks of unsold products.
As we have already mentioned, several manufacturers have shown their interest in taking over Research in Motion, but the company said it will try to resolve their problems on their own first.
Comments