Ever since Netscape’s stock market moonshot debut launched the dot-com boom back on Aug. 9, 1995, any self-respecting tech company has wanted its shares traded on NASDAQ. So it has been with Canadian tech companies. And that’s where Research in Motion’s shares trade in the United States under the ticker RIMM.
Yesterday, RIMM announced an absolutely awful quarter. That it posted a an operating loss was the least of its problems.[PDF] It said it will lay off 5,000 employees – one-third of its staff. And most ominously for its future: It ‘fessed up to its analysts and customers that it will not have its next-generation, company-saving BlackBerry 10 ready to go to market in time for Christmas. It won’t be out — if ever — until next year.
So, on the NASDAQ today, RIMM’s shares were hammered. One-fifth of its market capitalization vanished. (Side note: Bloomberg Ottawa bureau chief Theo Argitis noticed that RIM’s market value — count up all the outstanding shares and multiply by current stock market price — was about $4 billion. Apple, meanwhile, saw its market value rise by twice that, up nearly $10 billion at mid-day.)
Which, of course, meant it was the perfect time for Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird to show up at the NASDAQ MarketSite this afternoon and ring the closing bell on an awful quarter and an awful day on the best-known Canadian company that trades on NASDAQ.
In a related note, National Post columnist Andrew Coyne argues that the government which Baird is a part of should stay the heck out of the way as RIM’s owners try to figure out the best path forward.
I used to think darling was a poor term for the likes of nortel and rim, but as I get older I see the fit. When they are younger they are indeed full of energy and life, but as age comes they get sedentary and pass on.