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RIM Co-Founder Drops His Stock
drdread66 writes "Reuters reports today that Research In Motion co-founder Jim Balsillie dumped his entire stake in BlackBerry at the end of 2012. While it's common to see high-level executives sell some of their shares to gain some liquidity, it's unusual to see them exit their positions completely. This has to be seen as a massive vote of 'no confidence' from someone who was on the inside long enough to know what's going on in the company."
When one of the founders bails you know the ship is sinking.
Or it's probably because he needs cash to buy an NHL team to move to Hamilton.
If his judgement is so good about the mobile phone industry, how did he take the undisputed industry leader and run it off the road?
Perhaps he thinks the new models are missing the navigation wheel and the color screen is distracting.
Wasn't he ousted earlier? Might this be a case of sour grapes and a way to get back and give RIM, I mean Blackberry, a bit of a black eye?
. 62,400 repetitions make one truth -- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
I want some of what you're smoking
I see a founder who has had a huge strop that basically while he was at the help the company was loosing out to the rising smartphone market around it. He got sidelined and selling his stock was a final "throwing my toys out of a the pram' act. Ive seen it before, albeit in smaller startup environments. I see that Blackberry now at least has a viable modern product... and is attempting to find a direction. during then end of his tenure it was lost... Nothing more than an angry failed executive here...
A decade of being in the right place at the right time only keeps your bad decisions in check for so long. Eventually somebody comes along and makes good decisions.
Although I don't have much hope for RIM, I think any decisions this guy makes are as irrelevant as his decisions in his last years at the company.
Perhaps this is a good thing. The whole co-CEO business may look good, but there's a reason there aren't more co-leadership (or triumvirate) roles in leading companies (even GOOG ditched the triumvirate idea and shifted to a front-man+visionary model). This isn't a buddy cop movie where everything is scripted. CEOs of organizations in heavily competing markets actually do things.
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He's no longer with the company. He was part of the train wreck co-CEO management that refused to change. I see this nothing but good that he has nothing to do with the company now.
Of course the media wants to tear down a non Apple company. They are well on their way.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
He's dumping his stock about four years too late.
Well, that or his company is adapting to resulting marketplace changes caused by the launch of the iPhone about four years too late...
Or you know that someone with deep pockets paid him to do so, lowering the prices and rendering the company vulnerable to a Hostile Takeover.
Do you know Siemens VDO, I mean, Continental A/G, I mean, Schaeffler Group? :-)
So if this is intended to sink the stock it looks like it failed.
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Balsillie left the company in 2011. He has no up-to-date insider knowledge or connections with the current management team and it makes some sense for him to have sold his stock (approximately $300 million) to diversify his portfolio. I wish we could bury this sensational but meaningless story from the front page.
I used to his Elan (I think it was an Elan) in the car-park at Waterloo.
RIM stock had a nice run-up late last year.
That plus the fact that this company is on the downslope makes it pretty obvious that he made a wise financial decision.
Hey, give the guy a break - those high-class hookers are expensive!
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I got in at 13.20 and it closed over 15! Made over 10% in one day!
Remember Jobs did the same when he left Apple and started NeXT. Maybe he has a new startup doing Blackberry like products better than Blackberry.
And accidentally hit the 'Dump' button when he meant to hit the 'Buy' button.
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Why would you need an "experimental GPS tracking ribbon" when the phone already has a regular, non-experimental, old-as-dirt GPS receiver to do satnav? You can transmit the location and file list (file list? seriously? surely you mean contacts list, text message history, and browsing record!) over the existing 3G radio, too.
Why the hell would you add extra hardware that would be discovered in an iFixit teardown when you could do the whole thing in software, like CarrierIQ did? Geez, you didn't think this nutty conspiracy theory through very much.
The then CEO of Vmware Paul Maritz dumped $60,000,000 USD of shares in 3 trading days in mid-November 2012 leaving only just over 38k shares -- VMware shares have recently took a beating. Insider knowledge?
Because the "experimental GPS tracking ribbons" still work when you take the battery out, man! You need to keep your phone in tinfoil if you want to keep your privacy
Oh, that's the way to gain confidence. "We just released version 10 and it's going to turn this company around...but, I'm jumping the hell off this ship! Good luck, everyone!"
because this is a sign that the delusions of grandeur and visions and voices are disappearing
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Or Saverin shorting FB.
Hmmm ..... maybe they know something.
Maybe this should be considered an endorsement.
This is the guy who drove the company into the ground to begin with. The current management has made great strides. I am no RIM fan, but I am less of a Jim B. fan.
Haha, that's what they want you to think. In reality, the tinfoil _focuses_ the radio signals, making it easier to pick up the data - and to send commands to that controller they inserted last time you got a vaccination - or was it a 'routine blood test'?
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The most interesting part of this story is that no one cares
Because the "experimental GPS tracking ribbons" still work when you take the battery out, man! You need to keep your phone in tinfoil if you want to keep your privacy
At last, the voice of reason!
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
From the Summary: This has to be seen as a massive vote of 'no confidence' from someone who was on the inside long enough to know what's going on in the company."
The guy who was desperately trying to buy an NHL franchise while Blackberry were spinning its wheels in the face of Android and iPhone? Yeah, that guy knew what was going on all right.