Pressure mounts for activist investor to hit RIM

Investors in a new analysis of RIM's performance began calling in earnest for a change in management and a possible ouster of its CEOs. Northern Securities analyst Sameet Kanade provided an open letter asking the BlackBerry creator to consider reducing its executive overhead and taking Jim Balsillie out of the CEO role, leaving just Mike Lazaridis as the company head. Others, such as an anonymous top-30 investor talking to Reuters, were also hoping for an 'activist' investor like Carl Icahn to buy a significant stake and use the position to demand changes.

Charter Equity's Ed Snyder, along with the unnamed investor, argued that the dissatisfaction was coming from Balsillie and Lazaridis being too personally invested and entrenched in the company. Both have the largest investments in the company and are joint chairmen of the board, making it unlikely that they could be voted out. Their early success in courting businesses led them to be locked into that mentality when personal smartphone use was the trend and leading to market share losses as Android and the iPhone steal share.

"They're stuck in the past," Snyder said in direct criticism. "They know what worked and keep playing that card and it's not working any more, and they don't seem to have any ideas."

Most of RIM's reduced impact has come from a very conservative phone line. The BlackBerry Torch received flak after using components that were mostly identical to its phones from 2008 with most changes being limited to its software. A recovery is due to start this year with a wave of new phones led by the Bold 9900, but critics have already worried that phones like the BlackBerry Touch will just be competitive and not give buyers an incentive to switch.

By Electronista Staff