RIM Co-CEOs No Longer Billionaires With Declining Stock Price

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Waterloo-based handset maker Research In Motion was on top of the world in 2006 and 2007 when their mobile BlackBerry email machines were the best smartphones out there. Since then, they’ve come down a bit in terms of innovative and mindshare in the industry, and it’s hit the company’s Co-CEOs in the pocket book. I mean, I’m sure the stock they hold has been declining for a while, but now the declining stock price has robbed Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie of their status as “Billionaires”.

Last year, Forbes rated Lazaridis as the world’s 651^st richest man with a net worth of $1.9 billion, and Balsillie as the 692^nd richest man with a net worth of $1.8 billion. Following this week’s disastrous 23% stock price skydive for RIM shares, neither men can call themselves billionaires. Reportedly, the shares they own in the company are worth just $1 billion combined, and their individual net worth’s have dropped to $800 million each.

Does this matter? Not really, but it’s a sign of RIM’s increasing struggles in the mobile space. Tech bloggers have been writing about RIM’s demise for years, but the markets took their toll on RIM’s stock this week. That shows that even investors have lost confidence in the Canadian company. Almost hard to believe the company was trading at over $230 in 2007 before they split the stock. How times change, eh?

I reviewed the BlackBerry Playbook tablet for this website and found it to be a really awesome tablet with great hardware and a great operating system. Unfortunately, it has a non- existent app ecosystem, and the lack of email client (for those who don’t tether their PlayBook to a BlackBerry) is absolutely dumbfounding.

If a few changes, the PlayBook  could have been excellent. Would it have been a hit? Better than the iPad? Probably not. What do you think about the long-term fortunes of RIM? Is this company done?