RIM: Smaller Loss Than Expected, First Decline in Subscriber Base

From DailyTech: Research In Motion (RIM) has been going through tough times over the last year or so, and while its third-quarter fiscal 2013 financial results still show a loss, it isn't as bad as analysts had predicted.

For Q3 2012, RIM posted a $114 million (22 cents per share) loss, but analysts had forecasted a 35 cent per share loss.

Other good news includes the company's cash buildup for the quarter, which was a total of $2.9 billion. RIM's cash was at $2.3 billion in the previous quarter.

This increase in cash shot RIM's shares up 7.6 percent after closing in the U.S. on Thursday to $15.20.

However, RIM reported a net income of $9 million (2 cents per share) for the third quarter, which is pretty disappointing compared to its year-ago net income of $265 million (51 cents per share) in Q3 2011.

Also, for the first time, RIM saw a loss in its subscriber base. The base shrunk from 80 million in Q2 2012 to 79 million in Q3 2012.

A loss in subscribers isn't a great sign ahead of the launch of its new operating system, BlackBerry 10 (BB10), which is expected January 30, 2013.

RIM hasn't had a very easy path up to this point. For four days in October 2011, BlackBerry users from around the world completely lost their messaging, browsing and email services. These three features are key to any business (or consumer) user, and proved to be a huge mark on RIM's record. RIM blamed the service troubles on an extremely critical network failure during a system upgrade.

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