RIM spend 4% more than they take in

Research In Motion have had a dismal fiscal year, according to an analyst who filed a report yesterday. Peter Misek, an analyst at investment banking firm Jefferies said in a note to clients that when factoring in operating costs and inventory charges the hardware division have spent 4 percent more than they have taken in.

RIM have been struggling for the last year with the latest news that they are abandoning the consumer market to focus on the business sector again. They have written down value of product inventory for the last two quarters and Misek said that they are likely to write down by the end of the fiscal second quarter on September 1st.

Long running CEO's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis stepped down under pressure and Thorsten Heins took over as CEO. He said a few weeks ago that he was looking at new strategic options including partnerships and even licensing out RIM software in the effort to raise money.

RIM have also delayed the launch of their BlackBerry 10 phones which have a new operating system installed. They will launch later in the year according to latest reports.

Misek said in a telephone interview “The other key thing from this is that it’s not likely to get better anytime soon, because until BB 10 devices are out they’re going to have to keep cutting prices.”

Investors and analysts have asked RIM to separate their hardware division from the profitable services section which charges carriers a monthly fee for access to the proprietary network, which encrypts and compresses data.

Kitguru says: The next 12 months will be critical for RIM and a takeover isn't out of the question.

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