New RIM CEO Vows to Stay the Course, Investors Sulk

Posted 01/25/2012 at 7:22am | by Paul Lilly

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The general consensus is that Research In Motion needs to do something drastic if it has any shot at all of restoring relevance and competing with Apple and Android. Swapping out co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis for a single leader in Thorsten Heins might be a step in the right direction, but his insistence on staying the course isn't sitting well with investors during his first day on the job.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Heins told analysts not to expect "seismic changes" such as breaking the company up. It might be desperate times for RIM, but Heins won't be taking desperate measures.

"I will not in any way split this up or separate this into different businesses," Heins said. "If there [are] requests coming towards Research In Motion to talk about licensing that platform to other companies, I will entertain those discussions. I will listen."

Investors responded to his message yesterday by sending RIM's stock price down 8.5 percent to $15.56. At the time of this writing, it's down even further, trading at $15.01 per share.