The stock of Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM) was among those hit hardest by the current financial crisis. The stock is down more than 66% this year and lost another 8% today following an analyst downgrade.
Morgan Keegan and Pacific Crest Securities both said they have lowered its revenue growth estimates for RIM. Pacific Crest stated that sell through" trends of Blackberry smartphones in North America and Western Europe have been "slightly disappointing". Morgan Keegan said it expects RIM's revenue to grow 84% in 2009 and 56% in 2010, down from a previous estimate of grow 92% in 2009 and 70% in 2010.The firm said that those estimates factor in a recessionary environment.
Interestingly, Pacific Crest noted that sales of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip have been “tepid at best”.
At the time of this writing, RIM shares were trading around $54.19 on Nasdaq, down $4.82 or more than 8% from Friday.
In recent weeks, it has been suggested that Microsoft may be preparing a purchase offer for RIM to strengthen its mobile phone business. RIM’s current market cap is just above $30 billion, down from almost $80 billion in June of this year.
"RIM is a massive strategic fit" for Microsoft, said Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek earlier this month "I'm fairly certain they have a standing offer to buy them at $50 (a share)."
Microsoft and RIM did not comment on this note.
In related news, RIM launched a new “Jump Start” program to support software companies developing applications for Blackberry phones. The BlackBerry Partners Fund, run by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners - which claim to be managing the fund “at arm's length from RIM” – promises companies with innovative ideas for Blackberry applications up to $250,000 in funding to get their software off the ground. “The funding initiative is designed to bring new and innovative ideas into the development process faster allowing entrepreneurs to focus on building great smartphone applications instead of raising seed capital,” by JLA Ventures and RBC Venture Partners said.
The motivation behind this program is clearly Apple’s AppStore and Android’s marketplace, both of which promote third-party application development. SonyEricsson has also begun approaching developers to create software for its upcoming Xperia X1 smartphone.
The BlackBerry Partners Fund manages a total volume of $150 million.