Table of Content:
1. Background of the company and its industry
2. Recent history of company performance
3. Impact of and management response to the recent recession and how you know
4. Your expectations of Future Company Performance and evidence and reasons for
your assessment
5. Investment recommendation and reasons for it
1. Background of the company and its industry
Research In Motion (RIM) is a Canadian telecommunication and wireless device company
founded by Mihalis Lazaridis in 1984, headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario. It has offices in
North America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. RIM is a leading international company in the
mobile and wireless communications industry across the globe and it is the designer and
manufacturer of the popular Blackberry Smartphone, used by mostly every businessperson
on the planet. Also, the company develops software for the Blackberry phone that allows
users to access the Internet and media through a wide range of applications. There are over
10000 software and handset vendors offering wireless data services worldwide using the
Blackberry Enterprise Server.[1]
The wireless communications industry, in which RIM competes, consists of three market
segments, consumer market, prosumer market and enterprise market. The consumer
market are those people who buy the devices for personal use, the prosumer market are
end-users who buy for business and some personal use, and the enterprise market is
characterized by wireless services purchased by IT and business management. The
competitive environment for this industry is growing at a fast pace, and it is uncertain to
what extent the key rivals of the industry, whether it is enterprise software vendors or key
network operators, will seek to provide integrated wireless solutions.[2]
2. Recent history of company performance
Briefly about the recent history of RIM’s performance, it can be said that they have done
pretty well for the past three decades. By the late 1980s RIM had over US$1 million in
revenue and a dozen of employees. By the late 1990s RIM’s sales grew to US$47.5 million
and they completed their initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 1998. In
2000 RIM’s Blackberry was named The Product of the Year. The reported revenue for
2001 was US$221.3 million and more than 12000 organizations in North America were
using Blackberry. In 2002 RIM expanded into Europe.
Certainly, during the growth of the company, there were many problems and difficulties,
not only in the form of industrial competition but also in terms of legitimacy and
