Canadian investment firm Jaguar Financial Corp. is actively recruiting fellow shareholders of beleaguered Blackberry-maker Research in Motion (RIM), in an effort to force a restructuring of the company. Jaguar says at least 8% of RIM’s shareholders now support a sale or restructuring, and that it is actively engaging more institutional investors. Vic Alboini, CEO of Jaguar, would like to see RIM split into three companies – a network company, a device company and a patents company.
RIM’s Blackberry handset was the smartphone leader for years, and still has a large installed base among enterprise customers. But that base is eroding as Apple, Samsung and many others make inroads into the corporate market. Research from Changewave shows that RIM’s share of the enterprise smartphone market dropped from 76% in November 2008 to less than 67% in August of this year, and just yesterday The Wall Street Journal predicted that RIM’s share of the enterprise market will drop to 50% in 2 years.
Jaguar Financial first made waves this summer when it began agitating publicly for changes at RIM. One of the firm’s main objectives is to hire a new CEO for RIM; the company currently has two CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. Alboini says that with 8% of the shareholders now backing him, he could call a special shareholders’ meeting.
Adding to the company’s woes, its BBM messaging service, Internet browser, and email service have all experienced service disruptions today. RIM is currently posting updates on the situation on twitter.
RIM’s shares (NASDAQ RIMM) were up more than a dollar to $24.29 in mid-morning trading. The stock traded at $70 a share as recently as February.