{"id":14507,"date":"2012-06-05T08:39:56","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T06:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=14507"},"modified":"2012-06-05T08:40:45","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T06:40:45","slug":"blackberry-maker-rim-sales-down-shares-dip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/trending\/14507\/blackberry-maker-rim-sales-down-shares-dip\/","title":{"rendered":"BlackBerry maker RIM sales down, shares dip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research In Motion’s<\/a> share price on Monday dropped to less than $10 on Nasdaq<\/a>, a breach that technical analysts say could spur further declines, after an analyst warned that the BlackBerry maker’s sales were dismal last month.<\/p>\n

The stock, which is trading at its lowest since 2003, has fallen nearly 15 percent in the past week alone.<\/p>\n

After an announcement last week that RIM expects to post a quarterly operating loss, sentiment is extremely bearish on the stock, said Elvis Picardo, a strategist at Global Securities in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette said in a note to clients on Sunday that RIM sales deteriorated further in May.<\/p>\n

On Monday, RIM’s shares fell 5.8 percent to $9.66 on the Nasdaq<\/a>, while its Toronto-listed shares closed on Monday 6.1 percent lower at C$10.03.<\/p>\n

“You would have expected the C$10 level to have provided pretty strong support, but if it cracks through that it’s really hard to say where this decline will stop,” said Picardo.<\/p>\n

RIM, which almost invented the concept of on-the-go email with its first BlackBerry device in 1999, has seen its once dominant position fade in the face of competition from Apple Inc’s<\/a> iPhone and devices from the likes of Samsung Electronics Co<\/a> using Google Inc’s<\/a> Android<\/a> software.<\/p>\n

“Technically it’s not looking good at all,” said Don Vialoux a research analyst at Horizon Investment Management. “It trades well below its 20, 50 and 200-day moving averages and has given no indication of trying to bottom as of yet.”<\/p>\n

RIM’s market capitalization, which peaked at $84 billion in 2008, has now fallen to about roughly $5 billion. The company continues to cede market share to rivals and some analysts expect RIM to begin to lose subscribers this year.<\/p>\n

The stock’s latest slide was in part a response to the Pacific Crest note.<\/p>\n

“Our checks indicate that U.S. BlackBerry sales likely declined further in May, while inventory remained relatively stable,” said Faucette in a note to clients on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Faucette believes that telecom carriers now hold about six to eight weeks of BlackBerry inventory, which is roughly three to four times normal levels.<\/p>\n

Faucette said the majority of RIM’s sales in Europe are being driven by its lower-end Curve products. This in turn puts pressure on RIM’s average device selling prices.<\/p>\n

OPERATING LOSS EXPECTED<\/p>\n

Last month, RIM shocked investors after it forecast a fiscal first-quarter operating loss, without providing further details. The company, which has hired bankers to review its strategic options, is expected to report quarterly results on June 28.<\/p>\n

RIM said it added about 1 million subscribers in the quarter ended June 2, its lowest total in at least five years.<\/p>\n

Despite recent declines Roger Volz, a technical analyst at BGC Partners in New York, is skeptical about whether investors ought to jump into the stock at these levels.<\/p>\n

“If you were to say to me ‘I want to buy RIM at $9.68.’ I’d say that’s fine but if it closes at $9.20 then you have risk of the next leg-down which could take you to the May-June 2001 highs which are at $6.86 … That would be the next barrier where I would take a stand,” he said.<\/p>\n

NEW LAWSUIT<\/p>\n

RIM was also hit with a lawsuit last week that alleges its network – which compresses and encrypts data sent to BlackBerry devices – infringes on intellectual property owned by Mobile Telecommunications Technologies LLC.<\/p>\n

The five patents listed in the complaint cover storage of undelivered wireless data, handling of call-back telephone numbers, group messaging and use of pre-written meeting requests.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is Mobile Telecommunications Technologies LLC v Research In Motion Corporation, United States District Court for the northern district of Texas, case no. 3:12-cv-01652.<\/p>\n

Related articles:<\/h3>\n

RIM faces mass customer exodus<\/a><\/p>\n

RIM strategy shift met with skepticism<\/a><\/p>\n

RIM warns of operating loss, shares dip<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research In Motion’s share price on Monday dropped to less than $10 on Nasdaq, a breach that technical analysts say could spur further declines, after an analyst warned that the BlackBerry maker’s sales were dismal last month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,685,51,161,53,2746,157,52],"class_list":["post-14507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending","tag-active","tag-android","tag-apple","tag-blackberry","tag-google","tag-nasdaq","tag-rim","tag-samsung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14507"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14509,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14507\/revisions\/14509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}