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Greek Rich List News

Greek Canadian billionaire resigns from RIM (makers of the Blackberry)

Posted on January 23, 2012 by GRL Admin

Mike Lazaridis (left) and Jim Balsillie, who have shared the CEO and chair titles at Research In Motion, have resigned. Thorsten Heins, formerly the company’s chief operating officer, was named CEO and president. (Mike Cassese/Reuters).

Mike Lazaridis, Greek Rich List’s 5th richest Greek in the world, and co-CEO Jim Balsillie step aside after a long slide in the BlackBerry maker’s stock value, market share.

Research in Motion’s co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have quit after a tumultuous period at the company, which saw intense competition, declining sales, a failed tablet debut, and a long services outage at the maker of the BlackBerry over the last two years. The company is in the midst of replacing its BlackBerry operating system and product line with a new platform based on the QNX operating system it acquired in 2010. The first “BlackBerry reboot” products are due in late 2012.

An insider, COO Thorsten Heins, has taken charge as president and CEO, to implement the succession plan previously submitted to the board by the former co-CEOs, RIM said in a statement late Sunday. Heins joined RIM from Siemens Communications Group in December 2007 as senior vice president for hardware engineering and became COO for product and sales in August 2011.

[ Learn about consumerization of IT in person March 4-6, 2012, at IDG's CITE conference in San Francisco. | Get expert advice about planning and implementing your BYOD strategy with InfoWorld's 29-page "Mobile and BYOD Deep Dive" PDF special report. | Keep up on key mobile developments and insights with the Mobilize newsletter. ]

Heins told the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper that he intended to pursue the strategy set by Balsillie and Lazarids, including the move to a new BlackBerry platform. He also said he would be open to licensing that platform to other device makers. In a statement published by RIM, Heins said, “It is Mike [Lazaridis's and Balsillie's] continued unwillingness to sacrifice long-term value for short-term gain which has made RIM the great company that it is today. I share that philosophy and am very excited about the company’s future.”

Lazaridis and Balsillie have also quit their positions as co-chairmen; director Barbara Stymiest takes over as the new chairman. Lazaridis, a founder of the company, will become vice chairman, and Balsillie will remain a board member. Lazaridis will also chair a newly created “Innovation Committee,” and will work closely with the new CEO to offer strategic counsel, provide a smooth transition, and continue to promote the BlackBerry brand worldwide, RIM said.

Will CEOs’ resignation be enough to turn RIM around?

Investors in Research in Motion have been calling for change at the Blackberry maker since profits started falling last year, and on Sunday they got their wish.

Co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie announced they have resigned as the heads of the Waterloo, Ont.-based company.

Former chief operating officer Thorsten Heins will take over as CEO, while Lazaridis and Balsillie will remain on the company’s board of directors.

RIM’s slide in the last few years has been remarkable. In 2008, it was Canada’s most valuable company, with a stock share price of $148. On Friday, shares closed at $17.24.

Its share of the smartphone market has dwindled as competitors Apple and Google surged ahead with their respective iPhone and Android devices. The Blackberry Playbook, RIM’s answer to Apple’s iPad tablet, sold poorly, and the company was forced to sell it at a deep discount.

RIM investors have been pressing for change in the company’s management structure. Some have been calling for the company to be sold, or for the consumer product division to be broken apart from the enterprise business.

Will the resignation of RIM’s CEOs be enough to turn the company around? Does more need to be done to regain investor confidence? Let us know in the comments below.

Sources: CBC News/Info World