BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion continues to face pressure from a minority of shareholders to revive its stock price and make huge changes at the business including a potential sale.
Jaguar Financial Group, a Canadian merchant bank that has invested in RIM, is calling for the phone manufacturer to replace its management and pursue a potential sale, merger or division into separate public companies.
Jaguar is not alone in its criticism of the embattled BlackBerry maker: It claims the support of shareholders representing 8 percent of RIM's stock.
"I would say that if we are still looking at this stock in this position by the middle of next year then I think there will be a lot more support than just 8 percent," one of the shareholders told Reuters, although the shareholder declined to be identified.
Last month, Jaguar announced arranging a meet with two of RIM's independent directors to discuss the issues that the merchant bank raised. But Jaguar said RIM's counsel later informed it that the meeting would not take place.
"This incident clearly demonstrates the control that management has over the independent directors," Jaguar Chairman and CEO Vic Alboini said in a statement released Oct. 18. "Although RIM is a public company, in reality what we have here from a governance perspective is a private company where the Co-CEO dominance overrides any meaningful participation or independent oversight from the independent directors."
RIM's media relations team did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment on Jaguar's allegations and demand for changes.
The stock at RIM has suffered a shellacking this year as the company has disenchanted analysts and investors with weaker-than-anticipated sales of devices and other letdowns, including a recent network outage that interrupted services for millions of BlackBerry customers around the world. The stock fell Tuesday to a 52-week low of $18.40 following a downgrade of shares by Barclays Capital.
"Despite a healthy near-term picture, RIM's multiple cannot expand, and the stock cannot work until it reverses its series of product and software missteps," Forbes quoted Barclays Capital analyst Jeff Kvaal as stating.
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada-based RIM has been losing market share to the iPhone and Android-powered devices made by the likes of Samsung and HTC, but the company is hoping that a fresh lineup of yet-to-be-released smartphones based on a new operating system will help revive its world standing. In its second quarter of fiscal 2012 ending Aug. 27, RIM shipped 10.6 million BlackBerry smartphones. During the quarter, the company launched seven new smartphones through more than 90 carrier and distribution partners in 30 countries. RIM, which serves 70 million BlackBerry customers around the world, has forecast that 3Q smartphone shipments will grow between 27 percent and 37 percent over the prior three-month period.
