The struggling BlackBerry company, Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), has experienced financial loss of up to 15 percent, announcing a 37 cent per share first-quarter loss on Thursday. This is the greatest loss in over nine months, following the delay of the next BlackBerry operating system. This only adds to the pressure on the company to find a purchaser.
RIM's sales dropped a drastic 43 percent to $2.8 billion, from its previously predicted $3.05 billion. The company also reported plans to cut 5,000 jobs in the near future.
RIM was only a few months away from releasing the BlackBerry 10 in the fall. The company's hopes were that the phone's profits would save them from having to be sold.
With Apple's competitive iPhone releasing very soon and without a competing phone to sustain the company, RIM may be forced to find a buyer after all.
"They either sell, break up the company or die," said Matt Thornton, an analyst at Avian Securities LLC, said to Bloomberg. "It is just a question of when."
Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins said in May that RIM had hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. and RBC Capital Markets to help determine its strategic options. Heins' hope was that with their help, RIM could still sustain.
Heins echoed this yesterday saying he is "convinced" that RIM's future in making hardware and software is still bright.
Contrary to Heins' optimism, RIM has continuously struggled to keep up with its biggest competitors, Apple's iPhone and Google's Android.
The new BlackBerry 10 software release has been postponed until the first quarter of next year, RIM said yesterday. This is over a year from its originally scheduled release.
