Research In Motion's Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have bowed to investor pressure and resigned as co-CEOs, handing the top job to an insider with four years at the struggling BlackBerry maker.
Thorsten Heins, a former Siemens AG executive who has risen steadily through RIM's upper management ranks since joining the Canadian company in late 2007, took over as CEO on Saturday, RIM said on Sunday.
The shift ends the two-decade long partnership of Lazaridis and Balsillie atop a once-pioneering technology company that now struggles against Apple and Google.
With RIM's share price plummeting to eight-year lows, a flurry of speculation that RIM was up for sale has enveloped the company in recent months. But investors have pointed to the domineering presence of Lazaridis and Balsillie as one reason a sale would prove difficult.
Sorry folks, this is like putting a band-aid on a machete wound.
The need to remove the two bumblers-in-chief from the top of the RIM hill was known by even the most casual of observers for years. And the loss of lifeforce in terms of goodwill and market share has been too great for the patient to recover.
My guess is the new hire has been given marching orders to arrange the orderly winding down of the business and try to maximize the selling off of assets. Color me cynical. But for bleep's sake, don't blame me - take your case to the completely ineffectual board and useless executive staff that allowed the cancers to fester.
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