Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

RIM May Need To Write Off $1 Billion In Inventory

Posted by Soulskill on from the build-a-fort-out-of-blackberrys dept.

benfrog writes "Blackberry maker Research in Motion may need to write off more than $1 billion in inventory, according to Bloomberg. The potential 'writedown' comes after RIM took a $485 million pretax charge to write down the value of its PlayBook inventory in December. RIM has said it aims to save $1 billion in operating costs this fiscal year by cutting its number of manufacturing sites and is 'reviewing its organizational efficiency' across the company, which may lead to job cuts of 2,000-3,000. Its shares have tumbled 75 percent over the past year and are down 90 percent from their all-time high."

5 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. HP should buy them by Enderandrew · · Score: 5, Interesting

    HP is convinced they need to embrace the 'post-PC' world. They could actually salvage part of their 2 billion investment of Palm and Web OS. BB has a terrible platform right now and is dying, but they have a great brand name, and some great apps. Their mobile email client is absolutely the best.

    If HP was smart, they'd reach out to Google to help develop Android phones and tablets with some Web OS influence (some great UI concepts actually) and a BB email client. Honestly, wouldn't that be a legit Apple killer than enterprise shops would embrace en-masse?

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    1. Re:HP should buy them by Jeng · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If HP was smart,

      They've outsourced their intelligence to the lowest bidder.

      --
      Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
    2. Re:HP should buy them by Eponymous+Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Almost the entire WebOS team has been hired by Google. I don't think HP is doing anything with WebOS anymore.

  2. Re:What's With All The RIM Hate? by Nexzus · · Score: 5, Funny

    In the end, they will probably file chapter 11 and leave the debt with the US taxpayers.

    I know it's hard to believe, but RIM is a Canadian company.

    --
    Karma: Can only be portioned out by the Cosmos.
  3. Re:Amazing amount of mismanagement by PCM2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ironic that RIM is losing-out to the likes of Apple, by making the same mistake Apple did back in the dark days of the '90s, when it seemed like there was a new Performa out every week.

    Exactly this. When Jobs came back to Apple, he drew a box on a whiteboard and drew a cross through it. Four quadrants: Pro/Consumer on top and Desktop/Portable along the side. Instead of all these crappy Performas and 4400s and what-not, Apple relaunched with four computer products, grand total. Those were iMac/Power Mac G3 and iBook/PowerBook.

    Why can't RIM do this? It could probably get away with two models: BlackBerry (which has a nicer camera, movie player, and integrates nicely with Facebook) and BlackBerry Pro (which has slightly nicer build quality and some kind of easy VPN capability, or something). Model numbers disappear -- they just upgrade the hardware every year or two. It would go a long way to address the problem of sitting on too much inventory.

    Then launch it with a decent TV ad campaign. "Imagine a phone... blah blah blah ... introducing the new BlackBerry, from Research in Motion." And then, when customers go to the store, they just tell the clerk "I want that new BlackBerry." Clerk hands him a box that says "BlackBerry" on it. Simple.

    Never happen.

    --
    Breakfast served all day!